Massimo Graziato wins second stage of the Friuli Venezia Giulia 2011 Tour – Cycling news
Massimo Graz of the Trevigiani Dynamon Bottoli Team won the first white jersey of the Friuli Venezia Giulia 2011.
The race started in Azzano Decimo and ended at Pordenone. The Italian rider Massimo Graziato took a total of 3 hours, 51 minutes and 4 seconds to cover the distance of 166.8 kilometres.
His teammates kept the race under control in the closing kilometres of one of Italy’s top classics. Graziato crossed the line comfortably ahead of Stiven Fanelli of the Gallina S.Inox Tonoli team.
Andrea Margin of Friuli was in third spot. In the first kilometres of the stage, a group of five riders including Daan De Groot, Luke Durbridge, Andrej Rajsp, Riccardo De Biasi, Christofer Stevenson and Alexander Grigoryev were involved in a very close battle.
Another group of five riders came from behind and joined them. They managed to earn the maximum advantage of 2 minutes and 15 seconds.
This stage has three sprints and one mountain. The first sprint of the race was won by Eugenio and when the race entered the second sprint, a group of 3 riders including Marco Amicabile, Daniele Cavasin and Christofer Stevenson made the break. However, after
a few kilometres, Marco Amicabile took the lead.
However, in last sprint of the race, Russian rider Ilya Gorodnichev maintained his speed and took a lead ahead of the other two riders Grigoryev and Durbridge.
After 115 kilometres of the race, the two riders Stiven Fanelli and Andrea Margin were in the lead. However, in the final kilometres, Italian rider Graziato maintained his speed and crossed the finish line without any difficulty.
After winning the stage, Graziato said, “The Mountains are not my ideal environment, but help my partner Patrick Facchini, who is the ranking man of the team.”
Graziato was also taking lead in the general classification with a timing of 7 hours, 4 minutes and 29 seconds. Matteo Busato was in second spot, while Andrea Margin finished third.
The next stage will start in Fagagna and end in Tarvisio. All the riders will cover the distance of 153.6 km for the stage.
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