Il Lombardia 2011 was won by Oliver Zaugg of the Leopard-Trek Team. The Swiss rider, who was in a solo attack from the last climb of the race, thus took his very first pro victory!

The summary of the Tour of Lombardy 2011

The 105th edition of the Tour of Lombardy, or Il Lombardia according to its new name, started this morning at 11AM in front of the Palazzo Lombardia in Milan under a slightly cloudy sky but with the sun showing up regularly to announce a beautiful autumn day.

After several unsuccessful attempts, including one in which we already saw Yukiya Arashiro (Team Europcar) in front, the Japanese rider of the French time was again the one who initiated a 6 men strong breakaway once they were 45 kilometers in the race. This group, including Johan Vansummeren (Team Garmin-Cervélo), Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Omar Bertazzo (Androni Giocattoli-C.I.P.I.), Claudio Corioni (Acqua & Sapone) and Andrea Pasqualon (Colnago-CSF Inox), quickly built up quite a gap, up to 6'50" in 15 kilometers.
However, the peloton didn't seem to want this gap to stay that high for very long and thus started the pursuit of the 6 leading riders, especially with the Liquigas-Cannondale team. Even though the gap went down to just over one minute in the first climb of the day, the Valico di Ca'Perrucchini in Valcava, it went up again to around 6 minutes in the next few kilometers.

At 87 kilometers from the finsih, the gap was again down to only one minute and 35 seconds when Omar Bertazzo could no longer follow the pace of the leading group. While Mikel Astarloza and Johan Vansummeren initially manage to get rid of the 3 other riders in the breakaway, Yukiya Arashiro struggles back to this leading duo and so do several riders who attacked from the peloton about twenty kilometers further. They're than 10 riders in the front of the race, including some of the favorites: Yukiya Arashiro, Mikel Astarloza, Andrea Pasqualon, Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Johan Vansummeren, Luca Paolini (Katusha Team), Jakob Fuglsang (Team Leopard-Trek), Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale), Pablo Lastras (Movistar Team) and Mauro Santambrogio (BMC Racing Team).

Afte a first attack from Philippe Gilbert and Jakob Fuglsang, it was up to Vincenzo Nibali to attack in the climb of the Madonna del Ghisallo and even when he got taken back, the Italian rider didn't give up and tried to get away once again. Behind him, Gilbert and Fuglsang get company from Christophe Le Mével (Team Garmin-Cervélo), the Italian champion Giovanni Visconti (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli) and Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago-CSF Inox). Nibali quickly creates a gap and at 50 kilometers from the finish, he's already 50 seconds ahead of the group with Gilbert and 1'09" of the first peloton which slowly gets back on the chasing group and takes it back at 47 kilometers from the finish. On the top of the Ghisallo the peloton has a 1'24" delay on Nibali.

While Nibali seems to be able to continue solo towards the finish line, the race finally turned out to be about 16 kilometers too long for him cause it's at this distance from the finish line that the Sicilian rider is taken back by the peloton.

At about ten kilometers from the finish, it was up to Oliver Zaugg (Team Leopard-Trek) to attack, just before the top of the veryt last climb of this autumnal race and the Swiss rider finally managed to stay ahead of the chasing group behind him for 8 seconds and especially of Dan Martin (Team Garmin-Cervélo) who finished second.

The classification of the Giro de Lombardia 2011

Here's the top 10 of this race:
1/ Oliver Zaugg (Team Leopard-Trek) - 6h20'02"
2/ Daniel Martin (Team Garmin-Cervélo) - +0'08"
3/ Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha Team)
4/ Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale)
5/ Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-ISD)
6/ Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago-CSF Inox)
7/ Giovanni Visconti (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli) - +0'15"
8/ Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto)
9/ Carlos Alberto Betancur Gomez (Acqua & Sapone)
10/ Riccardo Chiarini (Androni Giocattoli-C.I.P.I.)

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Il Lombardia

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