Gilbert snatches victory in Castelraimondo

Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) snatched victory at the end of the longest stage at this year’s Tirreno-Adriatico with a late, last-gasp effort in the finishing straight.

Wout Poels (Vacansoleil) had caught breakaways Andrei Amador Bipkazacova (Movistar), Davide Malacarne (Quick Step) with two hundred metres to go but then Gilbert caught and passed them all along the barriers to win by a few centimetres.

Poels was stunned to be beaten but took second place, while Damiano Cunego (Lampre-ISD) was third and Danilo Di Luca (Katusha) was fourth.

The 244km stage was again a test of endurance and again Robert Gesink (Rabobank) was unable to go with his biggest rivals on the last climb. He chased on the fast descent but lost 26 precious seconds and lost the race leader’s blue jersey to Cadel Evans (BMC), who rode a clever race.

The Australia now leads Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) by two seconds, with Cunego third at three seconds. Monday’s sixth stage to Macerata ends with a short uphill finish but it is Tuesday’s 9.3km individual time trial that is expected to decide the overall winner of Tirreno-Adriatico.

Evans BMC team will have to control the race on Monday but Evans is perhaps the strongest time trialist of all the riders in the top five overall. He had only ridden two races before Tirreno-Adriatico but looks the favourite to take home the winner’s trident trophy.

Evans was disappointed not to do better in the hectic stage finish but was happy to have the leader’s blue jersey.

"I really don't think on a finish like that I'm going to be able to beat Gilbert. But I got caught back in traffic and couldn't get anywhere in the finish, which is a bit disappointing. But for the GC, it was reasonably successful," he said.

"Yesterday was a good step forward and taking the jersey was a bit of a surprise today because I thought Gesink would keep it. But the attacks in finale killed off his team and he was left isolated.”

“There’s still another tough stage to come and anything can happen. Then we’ve got the final time trial, which is very important. Such a short and intense time trial is very difficult after three hard days. It’s difficult to go well and so a lot of things can still happen.”

Gilbert was a bit happier about his day. He struggled on the steep climb to Chieti on Saturday but bounced back to confirm his immense talent for tough long classics. He more than anyone, can ensure next Saturday’s Milan-San Remo is not again dominated by the sprinters.

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Despite facing a second day of over 240km, stage five started fast, although there were some riders missing from the peloton, including Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky).

The early break formed after just seven kilometres when Andrei Amador Bipkazacova (Movistar), Davide Malacarne (Quick Step), Matthew Hayman (Team Sky), Fabian Wegmann (Leopard Trek) and Jens Mouris (Vacansoleil) jumped away and sparked a first hour of racing at over 45km/h.

The break opened a lead of 11:25 after 100km but that was as big as it got. The testing Apennine climbs began to hurt and over the top of the snow covered, 1455 metre high Sasso Tetto the gap was down to 6:55, with Mouris a further 2:40 behind.

Lampre-ISD and BMC lead the chase as they put Gesink’s Rabobank teammates under pressure. The gap came down to 3:05 as the race approached the finish area for the start of a final 26.6km loop and seemed likely to stay away. However Amador was the first to attack on the circuit and blew the break apart.

Malacarne got across to him but then instead of working together and waiting for the sprint to decide the winner, they attacked each other, sat on each other and argued with each other. Their lead melted away but was still 1:40 with 10km to go but they still continued to waste energy on each other instead off holding off the chasers.

The last climb to Gagliole inspired Marco Pinotti (HTC-Highroad) to test his overall rivals and that further reduced the gap to the two up front. They made it over the top but Scarponi lead the chasers at just 15 seconds, with six kilometres to go. Behind Gesink was struggling and was lucky to have Giovanni Visconti (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli) near to him to share the work. But he would still lose 26 seconds and probably any chance of victory at this year’s Tirreno-Adriatico

Most of the final six kilometres were downhill but the final kilometre kicked up to the centre of Castelraimondo. It proved fatal for Amador and Malacarne. They didn’t realise that Poels had attacked from the front group with a kilometre to go and then suddenly the whole front group came up on them in the finish straight.

Poels should have stayed close to the barriers but he went down the middle of the road, leaving the door wide open for Gilbert to surge through and snatch victory.

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