Ivan Basso takes first win of 2011 at GP Lugano
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Sunday, February 27, 2011

Ivan Basso takes first win of 2011 at GP Lugano

by Jered Gruber at 10:55 AM EST   comments
Categories: Pro Cycling
 
Italian Tour de France hope takes the win over Duarte and Visconti

2010 Giro d'Italia winner, Ivan Basso, notched up his first win of the 2011 season today in Lugano. The Liquigas rider topped Colombia's 2008 U23 World Champion, Fabio Duarte, and yesterday's GP Insubrica winner, Giovanni Visconti. Visconti wasn't the only rider who put in two consecutive days of solid results though: Team Type 1's Jure Kocjan managed a 4th place in Lugano following his runner-up spot to the Italian champion on Saturday. For Basso, it's a stellar start to his 2011 campaign, for which he has set his sights entirely on July's Tour de France. 

Duarte and Basso separated themselves from a select group of four as the crowning move of a long series of attacks.

The decisive moment of the day came in the race's final climb. Cofidis's talented Estonian climber, Rein Taaramae initiated the proceedings with a powerful attack. Italy's two-time Giro d'Italia winner followed the Cofidis rider immediately and with ease, while behind, it was Italy's National Champion, Visconti, who understood the critical nature of the move and leapt across as well. Geox-TMC super young rider, Fabio Duarte, was the last to jump across to make it four at the front - the winner would come from this quartet.

For Taaramae, it was a little too much too early though, and shortly after starting the move, he had to retreat back to the field, leaving only Basso, Visconti, and Duarte.

While Visconti got most of the attention from his win on Saturday, both Basso and Duarte had shown themselves at the head of the field in the waning moments of the GP Insubrica. Duarte led a late move that survived into the final half kilometer, while it was Basso who countered that move, but couldn't quite get free in the fast finish.

On Sunday, there would be no large group to ruin Basso's chances though. As the final climb continued, Visconti began to struggle. He did everything he could to hold on, but eventually succumbed to the pace being set by the former Tour de France podium finisher and the 2008 Espoir World Champion.

With the original move of four down to two, there was only the final descent to negotiate, which Basso managed with aplomb. In the finishing sprint, the not known for his sprinting prowess Basso, was able to just nose his front wheel ahead of his much younger rival to take a big win to start the season.

Unsurprisingly, Basso had only words for his recently passed mentor and coach, Aldo Sassi.

"This victory is for him," said Basso to La Gazzetta dello Sport. "But I know he wants another win…"

It's not too hard to guess, which race he's talking about.

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2011 GP Lugano Results (178.5km)

  Click on the arrowsat the top of the column to sort the race results.
Country Result Name Team Time
ita ITA 1 Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) 04:23:04
col COL 2 Fabio Andres Duarte Arevalo (Geox-TMC) s.t.
ita ITA 3 Giovanni Visconti (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli) 00:00:16
slo SLO 4 Jure Kocjan (Team Type 1-sanofi aventis) s.t.
col COL 5 Leonardo Fabio Duque (Cofidis) s.t.
ita ITA 6 Fortunato Baliani (D'Angelo & Antenucci-Nippo) s.t.
ita ITA 7 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r-La Mondiale) s.t.
rus RUS 8 Alexander Efimkin (Team Type 1-sanofi aventis) s.t.
ita ITA 9 Mauro Finetto (Liquigas-Cannondale) s.t.
esp ESP 10 David Blanco Rodriguez (Geox-TMC) s.t.
fra FRA 11 Mikael Cherel (Ag2r-La Mondiale) s.t.
ita ITA 12 Marco Marzano (Lampre-ISD) s.t.
fra FRA 13 Maxime Bouet (Ag2r-La Mondiale) 00:00:17
slo SLO 14 Tomasz Nose (Adria Mobil) s.t.
fra FRA 15 Hubert Dupont (Ag2r-La Mondiale) s.t.
fra FRA 16 Remy Cusin (Cofidis) s.t.
irl IRL 17 Nicolas Roche (Ag2r-La Mondiale) 00:00:18
sui SUI 18 Rubens Bertogliati (Team Type 1-sanofi aventis) s.t.
slo SLO 19 Simon Spilak (Lampre-ISD) 00:00:19
slo SLO 20 Matej Gnezda (Adria Mobil) 00:01:05
esp ESP 21 Luis Angel Mate Mardones (Cofidis) 00:01:06
ita ITA 22 Luca Ascani (D'Angelo & Antenucci-Nippo) s.t.
ita ITA 23 Gianluca Brambilla (Colnago-CSF Inox) s.t.
sui SUI 24 Reto Hollenstein (Team Vorarlberg) s.t.
sui SUI 25 Elias Schmah (Price Your Bike) s.t.
ita ITA 26 Emanuele Bindi (Meridiana-Kamen Team) s.t.
ita ITA 27 Edoardo Girardi (De Rosa-Ceramica Flaminia) s.t.
esp ESP 28 Javier Megias Leal (Team Type 1-sanofi aventis) 00:01:07
fra FRA 29 Mathieu Perget (Ag2r-La Mondiale) 00:01:08
ger GER 30 Patrik Sinkewitz (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli) s.t.
esp ESP 31 Patxi Javier Vila Errandonea (De Rosa-Ceramica Flaminia) 00:01:09
ita ITA 32 Cristiano Salerno (Liquigas-Cannondale) 00:02:09
ita ITA 33 Ermanno Capelli (Team Vorarlberg) 00:02:17
ita ITA 34 Paolo Bailetti (De Rosa-Ceramica Flaminia) s.t.
ita ITA 35 Angelo Pagani (Colnago-CSF Inox) 00:02:18
ita ITA 36 Andrea Pasqualon (Colnago-CSF Inox) s.t.
rus RUS 37 Sergey Rudaskov (Itera-Katusha) 00:03:00
ita ITA 38 Luca Barla (Androni Giocattoli) 00:03:01
ita ITA 39 Giampaolo Cheula (Geox-TMC) s.t.
ita ITA 40 Daniele Ratto (Geox-TMC) 00:03:39

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