Third place for Michel Ries at the foot of the Matterhorn; the Kometa Cycling Team, the best team in Aosta
56º Giro Ciclístico Valle d´Aosta
Stage 5: Valtournenche – Breuil Cervinia (120 km)
With a third place of the Luxembourger Michel Ries in the last stage, the participation of the Kometa Cycling Team in a Giro Ciclístico Valle d´Aosta concluded this Sunday. The Kometa Cycling Team had the highest aspirations for the general classification, it reinvented itself after the events of the first day and leaves with two partial victories in the bag (Michel Ries, Juan Pedro López), the first place in the general classification by teams and with one of its riders always among the first three places in five of the six days of competition. Juan Pedro López finished ninth in the general classification, at 17:58 of the Belgian Mauri Vansevenant (EFC). Michel Ries, eleventh, and Stefano Oldani, fifteenth, completed a great final classification.
Ries, the Italian Bagioli (Colpack) and the Belgian Van Gils (Lotto) stood out at the head of the race in the last five kilometres of the tremendous final climb to Cervinia, the recurrent final of the Giro d’Italia and also the usual stopover of the Valdostana race. The three had ridden in the select group of eight units that had entered the front within the last ten kilometers and the three, among the strongest climbers of this edition, ended up kneading up to forty seconds advantage.
Until the genesis of this leak, this fifth fraction of the demanding Italian lap was characterised by a leak that, with several variations in its composition, ended up arriving at the first bars of the final ascent. The EFC, the Dimension Data and the Groupama were three of the formations that worked hardest to bring down the leak that 22 kilometers from the end was still over 4:30 ahead. The group where the leader rode would definitely hunt the leak with ten kilometers to go. Another race would start then.
In the final straight Bagioli accelerated; the future WorldTour runner, under the guidance of Patrick Lefevere, beat his breakaway teammates without too many problems. “The team has been sensational every day”, says Antonio Puppio. It is an honour to be part of this block”. “It was very important to show again that we were the strongest team in this race. Today, in the stage, unfortunately the last three kilometres were not particularly difficult, so in the sprint with Bagioli I didn’t have any option”, explains Michel Ries.
“We got a very positive reading of this race. Despite the fact that the initial objective was to fight for the general classification, circumstances forced us to change our objective as we went along. We had to win stages and we had to try every day. The boys were spectacular, at a great level, and the new objective could be achieved. We left Aosta with two stage victories and as the best team of the race. I think it’s a very good booty, which makes us very confident for the next races,” explains Dario Andriotto, director of the Kometa Cycling Team in this race.
At the end of the Giro del Valle d´Aosta, it’s time to look at the next races on the calendar. The Guipuzcoa race Villafranca-Ordiziako Klasika, in five days, will be the next race in which the Kometa Cycling Team will compete.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
