Nicole won the event
for the third time, also taking success in this race
during her first 'Pro' season 2002 and 2005.
The 102 km race over the Italian coastal hills was
run off in atrocious winter weather. Nicole was involved
in an initial break of 8 at the halfway stage, and
had to work had to haul back two riders who then escaped
from this small group.
In the closing kilometres she countered several attacks
by Nicole Brändli
and another from Susanne Lungskog, but as they regrouped
1500m from the line Nicole launched her move, and
rode away to finish clear by 7". A third time
victor, no other rider has one this race more than
once.
A
third victory of 2007 more photos will
be available www.photodecola.it
"This is a spot of Italy
that holds good memories for me, but with the weather
today I'd have to say at one point I thought just
finishing the race in one peice would be a success!"
"Having team-mates protecting me prior to the
first selection at 68km was great. They worked really
well and in those circumstances I'm just really pleased
that I was able to reward their efforts with the win."
Day
1
24/03/07
Martina
Corazza (Ita)
1st
FRW-Gauss
3h 05m 55s
Monia
Baccaille (Ita)
2nd
Saccarelli
EMU Marsciano
same
time
Susanne
Ljungskog (Swe)
3rd
Team
Flexpoint
same
time
Noemi
Cantele (Ita)
4th
Bigla
same
time
Nicole
Cooke (GBr)
5th
Raleigh Lifeforce Creation
same
time
In a warm up event for the
main race of the weekend, the opening day of two days
of racing put on by the organisers saw Nicole finish
fifth in a sprint finish.