Pelucchi sprints to Trofeo Palma victory

Matteo Pelucchi (IAM Cycling) continued his fine start to the 2015 season when he landed victory in the Trofeo Palma on the final day of the Challenge Mallorca. The Italian had already claimed the opening race, the Trofeo Santanyi, on Thursday and he repeated the feat by winning the bunch sprint on Sunday.

On a day marked by heavy rain, Pelucchi saw off the challenge of André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) in the mass finish, while Ben Swift (Sky) took third place ahead of Sam Bennett (Bora-Argon 18) and Bryan Coquard (Europcar).

"Holst Enger and Simon Pellaud really helped me in the last kilometres and then Aleksejs Saramotins put me in a perfect position just after the last turn," Pelucchi said. "At that point I took Greipel’s wheel because he had his entire train and I was convinced that I could play for the win."

The early stages were animated by Darío Hernández (Burgos BH), Unai Intziarte (Murias Taldea) and Ilart Zuazubiskar (Spain), who broke clear in the opening kilometres and built up a lead of five minutes before the Cofidis team led the chase to peg them back.

Cofidis were working on behalf of their sprinter Nacer Bouhanni and the race was billed beforehand as a duel between the Frenchman and Greipel, but it took on a rather different complexion in the finale.

Zuazubiskar was the last of the escapees to relent but he too was swept up as the pace stiffened in the final hour of racing. Team Sky took up the running in the closing kilometres in a bid to lead out the sprint for Swift, while Greipel and it his train seemed well-positioned behind. To the German’s disappointment, however, it was instead Pelucchi who swooped to claim the win.

Pelucchi admitted afterwards that he had struggled in the cold and wet conditions, but said that he had few problems in dealing with the climbs on the day’s course. "The resistance work I did during the winter seems to have worked. I felt comfortable on the third category climb," he said. "In fact I suffered more from the wind and cold than I did from the climbs. At one point I was even tempted to climb into a warm car. In the end, I knew that everyone was in the same boat."

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