GranPiemonte winner credits his team and looks forward to il Lombardia on Saturday
Victory in today’s GranPiemonte – formerly known as the Giro del Piemonte – is the third, and biggest, of Dani Moreno’s season so far. The Katusha rider has taken stages in the Vueltas of Burgos and España, races in which he finished second and ninth overall respectively, but this was his first one-day victory of the year, and his first ever in Italy.
“I am very happy to win this race because I that the GranPiemonte is a very prestigious race,” the Spanish rider explained in the post-race press conference. “To go into the record books immediately after a great champion like Philip Gilbert it is for me a great honour.”
Moreno finished second in the 2009 edition of the race, outsprinted by Gilbert in the first of his victories; coincidentally, teammate Luca Paolini – who finished third in today’s race – was fourth that day, while riding for Acqua & Sapone.
“The race was fought out from the early kilometres and no one was slacking...” said Moreno. “One kilometre from the finish, my teammate Luca Paolini, told me to "give it everything" because he hadn’t got a good feeling and so I opened up my sprint for the win.”
For Paolini, who would normally be by far the better sprinter of the two, his unselfish act was another for a rider who is used to sacrificing his own glory for others.
“If I do not win, I’m able to help my teammates win,” explained the Italian. “At the GP Beghelli with [Filippo] Pozzato, here with Moreno, and in Lombardia I’ll try to do it for Rodriguez."
Having taken victory in the first of the two great northern Italian autumn classics, Moreno and the Katusha team are looking ahead to the bigger of the two races on Saturday,
“On Saturday there will be il Lombardia, a very hard and long race,” Moreno explained. “I will be available to the team and we will see how the race will go...
“I might try to escape, but at that distance and on those climbs it will be much more difficult to stay away to the finish,” he added. “However, if the best riders come out to fight for the victory at the foot of Villa Vergano, Joaquin Rodriguez and I will be there.”