Ferrari speeds to victory in stage five of the Tour de Taiwan

Following a period of doubt about his wellbeing, Roberto Ferrari found himself relieved at the end of stage five at the 2012 Tour de Taiwan as he sprinted to victory in the uphill finish in Changhua. The Androni Giocattoli sprinter, who turned 29 on the eve of the Tour, swept around Anthony Giacoppo (Genesys) and Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Saxo Bank) to claim his first victory since stage three of the 2011 Tour of San Luis.

After a productive Giro d’Italia that saw him finish in the top five of the bunch sprints on five occasions, he was struck down with glandular fever. “This was a parenthesis in my career,” he recalled. “I’ve almost lost a year and I’m starting everything from scratch again.” He went back to San Luis in January this year but wasn’t feeling good at all. Androni team manager Gianni Savio sent him to Taiwan to test his capacity to line up for the Giro again in May.

“To say that I’m ready for the Giro now is a big call,” Ferrari commented. “My form is good now. It’s important to arrive at a stage race and be competitive from the start. I came here to deliver results. Unfortunately, in the past two stages, I only managed to come second, that’s certainly not what a sprinter likes. But today, the finale suited my characteristics much more. The hill required a lot of strength. It had to be the shortest possible sprint. I calculated my efforts pretty well to come out at the last moment.

“I’m getting better and I hope this is the beginning of a nice season here in Taiwan,” Ferrari added. Asked if he felt ready for a hat-trick in the style of Andrea Guardini at the last stage race of the Asia Tour, Le Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia, he answered: “Tomorrow’s stage finish seems the hardest of the whole week of racing. It’ll possibly put the GC contenders in action. Above all, my next target is the last stage on Friday in Kaohsiung.”

Overall race leader Rhys Pollock (Drapac), who celebrated his 32nd birthday in the yellow jersey, said: “Tomorrow’s finish looks very tough. It’s a little bit of an unknown quantity. With no disrespect to [runner up] Wang Kam Po, my biggest threat is [former German national champion] Dirk Muller. He’s capable of attacking uphill and riding solo to the finish.”

The Australian was relieved to not have lost any time in the uphill finish of Changhua, where he came 29th - only five places behind Wang. “I knew this race could be lost by seconds if I didn’t have a good position at the bottom. It was good to stay in the mix with the same time as the stage winner.”

No gap was recorded between the first 54 riders at the top of the long uphill finish, which also enabled local boy Feng Chun Kai (Action Cycling Team) to keep his seventh position overall while chasing points along the way for both the mountains classification and the points competition that he leads. “The polka dot jersey remains my main goal,” said the 23-year-old from Miaoli.

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