April 02, 2007

8th victory for SAUNIER DUVAL PRODIR

Italian Riccardo Riccò continued SAUNIER DUVAL-PRODIR´s winning streak. He´s just won the fifth and final stage of the 7th Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali, which led riders over 168 kilometres from Casalgrande to Sassuolo. It is the eighth victory so far in the 2007 season by the yellow team.

Riccò had won the final stage of the previous edition of the Italian race, beating Paolo Bettini, and today he won once again after a solo breakaway he put in with 8 kilometres to go, on Alto de Fazzano. On the descent, he was joined by Scarponi, but the man of Acqua & Sapone was beaten by Riccò in the final sprint. After arriving second in stages 2 and 3 of the Italian event, this has been a nice reward for Riccò´s efforts. Scarponi snatched the overall leader´s jersey from Pierfelici (Aurum Hotels), and the rider of SAUNIER DUVAL-PRODIR climbed up to the second place in the GC.

This is 23 year-old Riccò´s fourth victory this season, having notched stage wins in the Tour de San Luis and Tirreno - Adriatico, thus confirming he´s the early season big revelation in the pro peloton. Today´s was the sixth win of the young Italian rider with just two years as a pro, as he was winner of the Japan Cup and the final stage of the Coppi e Bartali last year. Following the classics in northern Europe, Riccò will focus on the Giro d´Italia, in which he´ll play a key role working for teammate Gilberto Simoni. This week Gibo has proved he´s in very good shape.

Riccardo Riccò´s comments: "I´m so happy I won at last, and in my homeland! It´s a pity I couldn´t get the overall leadership. By and large, though, the Settimana Coppi e Bartali was very positive, both for me and for the squad. Now, I feel I need a break after an intense month -March has been quite demanding and left me a little tired both physically and mentally. I´ll compete in the three classics of northern Europe -Amstel, Flèche and Liège- to get ready to participate in the Giro d´Italia, where I´ll do my best to assist Simoni, who, by the way, is in great shape. I believe the SAUNIER DUVAL-PRODIR team are bound to excel in the Italian classic tour."