Elia Viviani (Liquigas-Cannondale) gave himself an early birthday present with victory in the 16th edition of the GR Costa degli Etruschi. The Italian, who turns 22 years old on Monday, won the Tuscan race in a bunch sprint, beating Roberto Ferrari (Androni Giocattoli) into second place and Elia Favalli (De Rosa-Ceramica Flaminia) into third.
“I managed to provide the perfect finishing touch to all the boys’ incredible input,” said Viviani after his victory. “Vanotti lined up the group at 5km out from the finish line, and then Marangoni, Dall’Antonia, Koren, Cimolai, Oss and Sagan led the way for me flawlessly.
“I broke away with 200m to go to avoid any surprises from Ferrari and [Manuel] Belletti, the two riders who I was most worried about, and I pulled off a nice clean sprint, just how I like ‘em; I couldn’t have asked for anything more from a debut on the Italian roads.”
With five-time race winner Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) absent with bronchitis (and he would have been racing in Qatar this week anyway) there had to be a new name added to the list of champions in the “Donoratico”.
The race was dominated by a 150km escape from a four-rider group, which the peloton allowed to get away but kept a close watch on. Mikael Cherel (AG2R-La Mondiale), Matthias Brändle (Geox-TMC), Damiano Margutti (De Rosa-Ceramica Flaminia) and Luca Fioretti (Ora Hotels-Carrera) were kept on a very short leash until the peloton decided to pull them back close to the finish.
Brändle was the last to resist the peloton, only swallowed up with 2km to go, but the eight-man Liquigas-Cannondale lead out train was too much for the Austrian and Viviani was delivered to the finish line with perfection. The sprinter, who has been described as “the future of Italian cycling”, finished it off in style, almost a length ahead of Ferrari.
Result GP Costa degli Etruschi
1. Elia Viviani (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale
2. Roberto Ferrari (Ita) Androni Giocattoli
3. Elia Favilli (Ita) Farnese Vini-Neri
4. Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale
5. Filippo Baggio (Ita) De Rosa-Ceramica Flaminia
6. Roberto Richeze (Arg) Ora Hotels-Carrera
7. Manuel Belletti (Ita) Colnago-CSF Inox
8. Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Lampre-ISD
9. Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Acqua & Sapone
10. Giuseppe De Salvo (Ita) De Rosa-Ceramica Flaminia