Bart De Clercq wins seventh stage of 2011 Tour of Giro d’ltalia: Cycling News
Bart De Clercq of the Omega Pharma-Lotto team won the seventh stage of the Tour of Giro d’ltalia on Friday.
The race started in Maddaloni and ended at Montevergine. The 24-year-old, Clercq took the biggest victory of his career.
With seven kilometres to go, the first year professional cyclist De Clrecq attacked alone over the peloton and took a victory ahead of the other riders by less than half a wheel.
The Omega Pharma-Lotto Belgian rider took a total of 2 hours, 54 minutes and 47 seconds to cover the distance of 110 kilometres.
After winning the stage Bart De Clercq said, "I want to dedicate this win to Wouter Weylandt and his family; it's really difficult for them at the moment."
Michele Scarponi was runner-up behind the 24-year-old Belgian rider on the mountain top finish. Roman Kreuziger of the Astana team grabbed third place ahead of a Vincenzo Nibali, Joaquim Rodriguez and Alberto Contador.
Scarponi said, “Overall it was a good performance, though. We didn’t have a good rhythm in the peloton and I tried to increase it, but doing that is never easy.”
Maglia Rosa wearer Pieter Weening of the Rabobank team remain his overall lead with the timing of 23 hours, 9 minutes and 59 seconds. Kanstantsin Sivtsov of the HTC-Highroad team was in second place with two seconds behind Pieter.
Marco Pinotti finished third while Christophe Le Mevel came fourth with a difference of five seconds.
With 30 kilometres remaining the group of five riders; Giovanni Visconti, Lars Bak, Federico Canuti, Jerome Pineau and Matteo Montaguti made first break. After few kilometre of racing all of them gained advantage of three minutes and twenty seconds over
peloton.
The second Serra della Strada climb Dutchman Johnny Hoogerland of the Vacansoleil-DCM team attack the bunch of the riders on the closing moments.
On the start of the final climb, Johnny tried to catch the peloton, but he failed. Jack Rodriguez attacked the Priazzi and tried to get away again while De Clercq gained 30 seconds.
In the final two kilometres of the race, De Clercq made gap of 1 minutes and 5 seconds. Various riders including, Scarponi, Kreuziger, Garzelli and Nibali tried their luck in vain but Clercq took a bunch by surprise with his attack.
The next stage will start in Sapri and end in Tropea. All the riders will cover the distance of 217 kilometres during the stage.
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