Polti Kometa best Italian team at the Giro d’Abruzzo: Double 7th in the “queen stage”

Team Polti Kometa is the only Italian squad present in the top-10 of the Giro d’Abruzzo after the queen stage (third and penultimate) thanks to Paul Double and an entire textbook collective conduct.

In a perfect demonstration of what it means to express one’s qualities and legs in different scenarios in the same race, sprinter Manuel Peñalver, after his podium finish two days ago, today led a 6-men breakaway that animated the day. By doing so, he allowed his teammates to have less responsibility in the bunch and himself to reach 4th place in the points classification, winning the intermediate sprint in Pizzoli.

Once in the final 60 km segment, which will be replicated exactly one month later to decide the Giro d’Italia eighth stage, the Valencian sprinter finished his great work on the Croce Abbio climb and waited for the peloton. Another race began there: on the descent the main group caught a couple of survivors from the breakaway, before undertaking the ascent to Prati di Tivo (15 km at 7%).

Well escorted until then by his bodyguards, during the climb Double resisted as much as he could to the infernal pace set by UAE and Astana. Result: 7th position confirming the analogous placement in the GC 51 seconds behind the new leader Lutsenko. “I followed the sports directors’ instructions with maximum concentration,” says the ’96 English rider. “In the end, I inevitably spent a lot to stay behind those who then fought for the victory. At the last kilometer I ran out of gas but I’m extremely happy with the performance of the entire team!”

Peñalver: “I’m happy to have put into practice the plans we made this morning on the bus, tomorrow we have one last day full of ups-and-downs until L’Aquila and we want to finish this Giro d’Abruzzo on a high note!”

Biagio Conte (in the Polti Kometa car in tandem with Giovanni Ellena): “Exemplary management by the guys, well done first of all to Manuel for joining the breakaway and then helping in the descent after being caught. We always raced at the front with the right attention and everyone gave their best according to their characteristics, from Javier Serrano and David Martín to more uphill-suited riders like Alex Martín, Davide De Cassan and Germán Gómez. Of course excellent performance by Paul, who also managed to react to a moment of weakness.”