Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) continued his winning October as he powered away to his second victory in three days to take the 2013 edition of the Giro dell'Emilia at the top of the steep climb to the Santuario della Madonna di San Luca in Bologna, Italy. The 24-year-old, who had also won the Milano-Torino race ten days previously, broke clear of a splintering breakaway group on the final slopes of the climb to win by a slim one-second margin.
Having suffered on the lower slopes of the climb, Chris Anker Sørensen (Saxo-Tinkoff) recovered to sprint into second place, ahead of Davide Villella (Cannondale).
"Today I've found myself again in the good situation of finalizing the amazing work my team mates did,” Ulissi explained. “It's my sixth victory of the season, it's not so simple to get to this number of successes, this means I'm working in the proper way with the support of people that can give me the best advice.”
The 200km race was made up of a 162.8km opening loop, followed by four laps of a 9.3km finishing circuit, based on the steep climb to the finish line at San Luca. The opening hour was ridden at an average speed of 50.2kph, preventing anybody from escaping but, shortly afterwards, a group of 14 got away.
In the break were Nicki Sørensen, Sergio Paulinho and Pawel Poljanski (Saxo-Tinkoff), Nicolo Martinello (Cannondale), Manuel Mori (Lampre-Merida), Hubert Dupont (AG2R La Mondiale), Adrian Honkisz (CCC Polsat-Polkowice), Antonino Parrinello, Patrick Facchini and Miguel Angel Rubiano (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela), Angelo Pagani (Bardiani-CSF), Fabio Taborre (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia), Alexander Rybakov (RusVelo) and Tsgabu Grmay (MTN-Qhubeka).
The group was able to get 1’35” clear on the approach to the race’s big climb to Valico di Santa Lucia, but it fell sharply as the gradients began. After 74km it was back to 30 seconds, when Martinello and Grmay lost contact, and Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani-CSF) attacked from the peloton and managed to join the two dropped riders.
The gap to the remaining 12 leaders then grew to two minutes and, on the climb to Badolo with 65km to go, Poljanski, Mori, Dupont, Honkisz, Facchini, Rubiano, Pagani and Taborre left the others behind. Having been dropped on the climb, Parrinello managed to regain contact and attacked on the climb to the finish line on San Luca for the first time.
The Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela rider was 48 seconds clear at the end of the first lap, with the peloton just 19 seconds behind the chasers.The group was caught shortly afterwards, whereupon Donato De Ieso (Bardiani-CSF) attacked from the peloton and tried to get across to Parrinello.
The counterattacker was unable to cross the shortening gap, however, and Parrinello himself was closed down by the Lampre-Merida team before he could reach the finish line at the end of lap two.
The next attack came from Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida) and Emanuele Sella (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela), who managed to get clear. There were counterattacks from Matteo Rabottini (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia), and Oliver Zaugg (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Merida), trying to get across, but Durasek and Sella were still just a few seconds clear as they began the final lap.
A group of eleven riders had broken clear on the penultimate time up the climb, and managed to make it across to the two leaders early in the final lap. In the group now were Ulissi and Michele Scarponi, who joined Lampre-Merida teammate Durasek, Gianfranco Zilioli, who joined Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela teammate Sella, Chris Anker Sørensen and Villella, Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale), Davide Rebellin (CCC Polsat-Polkowice), Francesco Bongiorno and Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani-CSF) and Mauro Finetto (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia).
Approaching the final climb to the finish Ulissi, Bongiorno, Zardini and Villella pulled away from the others, with Ulissi managing to break clear as they neared the top. Sørensen fought his way back up on the steep climb to outsprint Villella for second place.
Result
1. Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre-Merida
2. Chris Anker Sørensen (Den) Team Saxo-Tinkoff @ 1s
3. Davide Villella (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycing
4. Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela @ 4s
5. Francesco Bongiorno (Ita) Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox @ 6s
6. Edoardo Zardini (Ita) Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox @ 8s
7. Mauro Finetto (Ita) Vini Fantini-Selle Italia @ 14s
8. Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre-Merida @ 27s
9. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale @ 29s
10. Emanuele Sella (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela @ 40s