March 22/12 8:37 am - Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali: Stage 2b

Posted by Editoress on 03/22/12
 

Lucas Euser top SpiderTech rider in overall standings

It was a rare, tough double-stage day Tuesday at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali.

The morning’s road race was relatively short at just 99.5-km, but that didn’t make it any easier.

“With two very hard climbs we knew that there would be at least some attempts to get away in that early move before the climbs started at 46 km in,” said Team SpiderTech powered by C10 director Michael Carter. “Marching orders were to get Ray, Flavio or David in that early move – we ended up with Ray off the front with Jeff Louder of United Health after about 10 km. They gained an advantage of 1:50 over the field as the started the climb and then Ray fell off of Louder’s pace. The field caught Ray, Louder stayed away to win the first KOM, then it was Lucas who was able to capture third for the first KOM. The field split over the second hard climb of the day, then slowly came back together on the last 35 km of the descent to the finish”

Lucas Euser was the only SpiderTech rider to finish in the front group of 74 riders.

In the afternoon, the boys lined up for SpiderTech’s first-ever team time trial on a flat, 14.7-km course.

“For the very first TTT of the year and with no practice, the guys worked very well together on their Argon 18 E-118 machines, taking strong, smooth pulls. Ray’s efforts of the first stage of the day took their toll on him and he was not able to finish with the team, as was the case with Flavio and also Bjorn. The remaining five riders looked better and better with each kilometre and managed to finish with a respectable time of 17:15, only 47 seconds off of first place NetApp.”

Report Spidertech powered by C10