The "Basque-Navarran Trilogy", including also GP Miguel Indurain and of course the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, came to an end Sunday with the 54th Gran Premio Primavera, a single-day event (ranked 1.1 and part of the UCI Europe Tour calendar) held over a local circuit, with the start and finishing line situated at Amorebieta town - even if it was moved from its "traditional" place, Gudari Street, to Calle Nafarroa. First across the line at the end of the 171.6-kilometre bikefight was Damiano Cunego (Lampre), who notched up his second victory in the space of a couple days only.
The man from Verona and another well-known guy such as Alejandro Valverde attacked in the third passage over the Muniketa ascent and made the gap after previous breakaway groups weren reeled in. Chasers to the front duo spared no efforts, but there was perfect cooperation between the two world-class riders, on the last passage over the third category Autazagane, that they crested with about 4k to go, as much as in the very final rush to the line.
They made it to the final straight together, but were joined by Mikel Astarloza (Spa - Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Kjell Carlström (Fin - Liquigas) in the last hundred metres. Still, Damiano had legs quick enough to launch the sprint at the right time and hold off Valverde to win by about half-a-wheel length. Carlström, paying the price of his chasing efforts, couldn't match Damiano's speed in the sprint and took third, giving the race podium some Nordic flavour at least, whilst Astarloza had to settle for 4th place only, to the dismay of fans of the "orange warriors", that finished their home campaign with quite a poor balance. The next group, consisting of about a dozen guys, came in 12 seconds behind. Igor Romero of the Orbea-Oreka squad was crowned King of the Mountains.
www.dailypeloton.com / es.eurosport.yahoo.com
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