Elia Viviani (Liquigas-Cannondale) claimed his second successive GP Costa degli Etruschi victory by outsprinting Sacha Modolo (Colnago-CSF Bardiani) in a bunch finish in a frozen Donoratico, with Filippo Baggio (Utensilnord-Named) the best of the rest in third.

Viviani and Modolo enjoyed a number of sprint tussles on the domestic calendar last year, and their duel was always likely to decide the outcome of the traditional curtain opener to the Italian season, particularly given that Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) had insisted beforehand that he would not take any risks in the treacherous conditions.

Unsure of whether or not the wily Petacchi was bluffing, however, Viviani planted himself on his wheel in the finale. Although Petacchi was at the business end of affairs, he ultimately opted not to contest the sprint, and his reticence meant that Viviani was forced to change horses mid-course.

“I thought that Petacchi would be the man to beat and so I held his wheel from 3km to go until the last 300 metres,” Viviani said afterwards. “Seeing that he wasn’t going for it, I jumped onto Modolo’s wheel, because he was being led out. With 70 metres to go, I came around him.”

The win was Viviani’s second of the season, after he captured a stage victory at the Tour de San Luis in Argentina last week. For his rival Modolo, it was the first outing of the season, and his directeur sportif Roberto Reverberi was determined to focus on the positives.

“It was a beautiful sprint, uncertain right to the end, and Modolo jumped well with 200 metres to go,” Reverberi pointed out. “It’s a second place that augurs well.”

Extreme conditions see reduction in distance

Plummeting temperatures and heavy snowfall in Tuscany in the days leading up to the race had threatened the cancellation of the GP Costa degli Etruschi, with Saturday morning’s Gazzetta dello Sport going so far as to question whether it was reasonable to expect riders to risk life and limb in such conditions. Ultimately the race proceeded, albeit with one concession to the weather – the peloton would cover just two laps of the opening circuit rather than three, reducing the total distance to 169km.

Winter jackets, tights and snoods were the order of the day as the bunch pedalled gingerly away from a slightly delayed start in San Vincenzo. With temperatures hovering just above freezing, however, a number of riders were in no mood to hang around, and the main break of the day had forged clear within 15km.

Alessandro De Marchi (Androni), Davide Ricci Bitti (Farnese-Selle Italia) and Federico Rocchetti (Utensilnord-Named) were the three men who forced their way clear, and they quickly built up a maximum advantage of 11 minutes as they proceeded steadily through the snow-draped Tuscan countryside.

Inside the final 80km, their lead slowly but surely began to dwindle, as Liquigas-Cannondale, Colnago-CSF Bardiani and Lampre-ISD set to work on the front of the peloton, and by the time they reached the final lap of the finishing circuit with 10km, they had just 20 seconds in hand on the bunch.

At that point, the plucky De Marchi took a flyer and tried to hold off the peloton alone, but his effort fizzled out within 3 kilometres, and the stage was set for a grandstand finish in Donoratico. While Lampre-ISD did much of the spadework in clearing a path for the sprint, it was ultimately the youngsters Viviani and Modolo who fought it out, with Viviani emerging victorious.

A big 2012 stretches out before Viviani. As well as competing with a number of fast young Italian sprinters on the road, he is also building towards the London 2012 Olympics, where he hopes to compete in the omnium on the track.

“Now I’m taking part in the next races on the Italian calendar, starting with the Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria, but the next important aim is the last round of the track World Cup in London,” Viviani said. “It will be important to get a good result there for the Olympics.”

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