COMO, 17 October 2004 — Italy’s Paolo Bettini of the Quick Step team won the 2004 10-race World Cup series following the final race, the Tour of Lombardy, won by compatriot Damiano Cunego yesterday.
Olympic road race champion Bettini kept tabs on compatriot Davide Rebellin, who had led the series till last weekend’s Paris-Tour, before lifting the overall title for the third and final time because the competition will no longer be held.
Cunego, the reigning Tour of Italy champion, crossed the line ahead of Dutchman Michael Boogerd and Italy’s Ivan Basso after the 246km stretch from Mendrisio, Switzerland to Como, Italy.
Cunego, who has been one of the revelations of the season, won from a leading group of five riders also including Australian Cadel Evans, who took fourth place, and Italy’s Daniele Nardello.
“It’s great to finish the season with a victory even if I have another race left in Japan,” Cunego said afterward. “Of course to win the Tour of Italy, that is the pinnacle for any Italian rider. But winning a World Cup race like the Tour of Lombardy, that’s really something.”
Cunego first made a break on the descent at Civiglio less than 15 kilometers from the finishing line. He was then joined by a dozen or so riders and limited times losses to a couple of seconds on the final climb at San Fermo della Battaglia despite the high work rate of Italy’s Ivan Basso.
The leading trio of Basso, Boogerd and Evans was caught by Cunego at the start of the descent to Como, less than five kilometers from the line. The 23-year-old Cunego is only in his third year as a professional and was ranked third in the world before the start of this race. The World Cup disappears as next year its place is taken by the 30-race ProTour series which includes the classics, as well as the three three-week Tours of France, Italy and Spain, and some one-week stages races such as Paris-Nice and the Tirreno-Adriatico.
