Milano-Sanremo: “The Cat” Freire Wins Centenary Race

By Jessica | Permalink |

No Comments | March 24th, 2007 | Trackback

freire Spaniard Oscar Freire (Rabobank), three-time world champion, is now a two-time Milano-Sanremo winner.

It sounded like a great finish. I say “sounded” because for us it was like the old-time radio days - we huddled around the computer listening to David Duffield calling the race on EuroSport, only it was just the audio feed. I’m looking forward to watching the replay later on Cycling.tv, but for now, here’s what we know.

There was a break more than five minutes off the front when I tuned in (woke up), but they were eventually caught. At that point, the weather reports from the finish were saying “cloudy and rainy,” which could have made a dicey last few km even more dangerous. Thankfully, the roads dried out enough so that the Cipressa and Poggio weren’t any more sketchy than they always are.

There were a couple crashes which ended with riders in neck braces being carried off on stretchers… Not good news. I hope they’re okay. After the group came back together, a few guys kept leaping off the front (including perpetual breakaway artist Thomas Voeckler), but nothing stuck. In the end, it was the sprinter’s teams at the front leading out their best bets - Quick Step for Boonen, Lampre for Bennati, and Milram for Petacchi. The guy who never seems to have his team at the front - the barnacle of the peloton, attaching himself to whatever train looks strongest that day - is Oscar Freire. And whatever you might think of that opportunistic strategy, it certainly works for him.

In La Gazzetta immediately after the race, Freire said, “I had no problems getting on the wheel of the strongest riders. Today I felt great, I had the legs. I’m also very happy for my team.” Because even though they weren’t there in the sprint, Rabobank didn’t do nothing all day. They worked their orange and blue tails off to bring back the breakaway before the Capi began.

At any rate, here’s where the CyclingNews writeup will be eventually, and here’s the results as they’ve been posted at the moment:
1 Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank
2 Allan Davis (Aus) Discovery Channel
3 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quickstep-Innergetic
4 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Predictor-Lotto
5 Stuart O’Grady (Aus) Team CSC
6 Erik Zabel (Ger) Milram
7 Gabriele Balducci (Ita) Acqua & Sapone-Caffè Mokambo
8 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Milram

Photo by Bettini