Rebellin captures Giro dell'Emilia victory

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Davide Rebellin (CCC Polsat Polkowice) rolled back the years to win the Giro dell'Emilia on Saturday, beating Angel Madrazo Ruiz (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA) and Franco Pellizotti (Androni Giocattoli) into second and third, respectively.

The 43-year-old veteran, a winner of the race in 2006, came out on top in the uphill finish to win arguably the biggest win of his career since his comeback from a doping suspension.

The race began with a flurry of attacks and after five kilometres, a group of 23 had forged clear of the peloton. Too large and with little cohesion, they were reeled in after an hour of racing.

It wasn’t until a group containing Zilioli (Androni-Venezuela), Sergey Firsanov (RusVelo) and Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (MTN – Qhubeka) did the peloton ease up, allowing a counter attack of 27 to also move clear. There were too many dangerous names in the second group, with Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge), Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida), Rebellin, Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Moser present.

After two hours of racing, the peloton had brought the counter attack to heel, allowing for Zilioli, Firsanov and Janse Van Rensburg to press on and extend their advantage to five minutes after 110 kilometres of racing.

The trio’s peaked at eight minutes on the first ascent of the Santa Lucia before the peloton final awoke from the autumnal malaise and set about reducing the deficit. Slowly they chipped away, taking thirty seconds by the time the race entered the final 50 kilometres as Firsanov pushed clear of his tiring companions.

At the head of the peloton, Lampre and Cannondale controlled the pace duties. On the second ascent of the Santa Lucia, David Villella (Cannondale), Madrazo, Francesco Manuel Bongiorno (Bardiani - CSF), Pellizotti, Rebellin and Louis Meintjes (MTN-Qhubeka) distanced the rest of the field by thirty seconds.

After the top of the second ascent, Zilioli had 47 seconds on his two previous breakaway companions with Rebellin’s group at 2:30. Firsanov was quickly absorbed by the peloton, with Janse Van Rensburg soon to follow.

Inside the final 10 kilometres and with just one final ascent of the climb to come, Zilioli still held a slender advantage over the chasers with Pellizotti, Bongiorno, Zardini, Rebellin and Mandrazo at the head of affairs.

Zilioli had all of 25 seconds as he raced under the five kilometres to go banner. Mandrazo was the first rider to attack from the select chase group with Bongiorno and Rebellin keen to counter. Rebellin, the freshest of the lot, was able to push on and passed Mandrazo, even managing to hold off a late surge from Pellizotti.

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