RAVENNA, 17 May 2005 — Italian sprint ace Alessandro Petacchi, of the Fassa Bortolo team, won the ninth stage of the Tour of Italy after a mass sprint here yesterday for his first win in this year’s race.
But countryman Danilo Di Luca, riding for Liquigas, retained the overall lead.
It was 31-year-old Petacchi’s 16th victory in the Giro, including nine wins last season, and he finished ahead of compatriot and Olympic road race champion Paolo Bettini and Aurelien Clerc of Switzerland.
Petacchi, helped by his team in the final kilometers, made his dash for the line with about 200m to go. Australia’s Robbie McEwen followed Petacchi but was not able to overhaul him and finished fourth ahead of German veteran Erik Zabel, who was fifth.
Germans Sven Krauss and Eric Baumann plus Denmark’s Mads Christensen escaped in the first kilometer but the breakaway was eventually caught with about 20km to go of the 142km stage from Florence.
Petacchi also earned his 17th victory of the year, with the first major classic of the season, the Milan San-Remo in March, among them.
Martin Perdiguero Back in Power in Catalonia
In Salou, Spain, after only 19.2 kms of racing, last year’s winner of the Tour of Catalonia, Spaniard Miguel Angel Martin Perdiguero, leads again.
Martin Perdiguero’s Swiss team Phonak won the Tour’s opening stage yesterday a short team time-trial starting and finishing in the coastal resort of Salou.
The 32-year-old was the first to cross the line in his team, propelling him into the first leader’s jersey of the race.
“It was the other guys in the team that decided during the stage that I should be leader,” Martin Perdiguero told Reuters.
“I don’t rule out repeating last year’s win. But my teammates (Colombian) Santiago Botero and (American) Floyd Landis have a much better chance because they are stronger than me on the climbs and there is a tough mountain time-trial on Friday.
“For now I’m just pleased to take my first win of the season.” Despite starting a man short after Spaniard Jose Enrique Gutierrez fell ill at the last minute, Phonak had a smooth run on the flat, exposed course.
The Swiss squad were the only team to average over 53 kph, clocking a time of 21 minutes 43 seconds.
Second in the event, which forms part of cycling’s ProTour, was American squad Discovery Channel, seven seconds behind.
German team T-Mobile, led by top Tour de France contender Jan Ullrich of Germany, secured third place, 15 seconds back.
Ullrich, who is using the race to fine-tune his preparations for the Tour, said: We went a bit slowly at first, but in the second half after the time check we hit top gear, which is why we had such a good result.”
Colombia’s Botero, widely tipped after his victory in the recent Tour de Romandie, is seventh overall, three seconds behind Martin Perdiguero.
