One day after their clean sweep of the podium in the Memorial Marco Pantani, Daniele Bennati (Tinkoff-Saxo) continued the domination of the Italian national team in the one-day races in their home country by winning the GP di Prato. Having made it into a five-rider group with his in-form teammate Vincenzo Nibali, the veteran beat Marco Marcato (Wanty), Davide Rebellin (CCC), Luca Wackermann (Southeast) and Nibali in the sprint.

 

Italy is among the perennial favourites for the World Championships and they traditionally have a series of one-day races in the week prior to the battle for the rainbow jersey, allowing their selected riders to test their condition. This has often allowed them to gain some confidence but rarely have they dominated the races like they have done this year.

 

Still riding for his Astana team, Vincenzo Nibali was the star in the Coppa Agostoni and Coppa Bernocchi where he took second and first respectively. Yesterday he rode for his national team and was part of the clean sweep of the podium as he joined forces with eventual winner Diego Ulissi and Giovanni Visconti to time trial their way to the finish of the Memorial Marco Pantani.

 

Today Nibali again played a key role for his team as he was part of a five-rider move that managed to hold off the fast-approaching peloton in the GP di Prato. With his fast teammate Daniele Bennati in the group, he sacrificed himself and the veteran paid back the favour by taking what is nowadays a rare win.

 

The action had taken place on the 10km circuit with the short Montemurlo climb that was covered six times in the second half of the race. With a little less than 80km to go, the early break was brought back after the Italian team had made the race hard.

 

At this point, two of the contenders for the race, Enrico Gasparotto (Wanty) and Gianfranco Zilioli (Androni) both suffered mechanicals. They were back in the peloton when they hit the climb again where the Italian national team continued to ride fast.

 

Luca Wackermann (Southeast) made a brave solo move and managed to put 20 seconds into the group before he got to the top.  Behind, the pace was set by Valerio Agnoli (Italy) who was unable to prevent the gap from going out to 50 seconds.

 

CCC took over the pace-setting as they hit the climb with a delay of 1.10. Here Davide Rebellin (CCC) and Marco Marcato (Wanty) went hard to crest the summit in second and third position respectively.

 

On the descent, Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) and Daniele Bennati (Italy) joined the two Italians to form a quartet that was 37 seconds behind. Giovanni Visconti (Italy), Rodolfo Torres (Colombia), Serge Pauwels (MTN), Damiano Cunego (Nippo), Francesco Gavazzi, Simone Ponzi (Southeast), Jose Mendes (Bora), Danilo Napolitano (Wanty) and Kristijan Fajt (Adria) were at 50 seconds while Alberto Bettiol (Italy), Johann van Zyl (MTN), Andrea Fedi (Southeast), Nikolay Mihaylov (CCC) and Fabrico Ferrari (Caja Rural9 were at 1.05. The peloton was at 1.13.

 

The second and third chase groups merged while Nibali, Bennati, Rebellin and Marcato made it back to Wackermann. The front quintet now had a 30-second advantage over their 14 chasers while the peloton was at 46 seconds.

 

Rebellin led Nibali and Marcato over the top of the climb where the chase group was brought back by the peloton that was led by Bardiani. At this point, the gap was 36 seconds but it had gone out to 50 seconds as they entered the final 50km.

 

Enrico Barbin (Bardiani), Simone Stortoni (Androni), Daniel Martinez (Colombia), Pauwels, Matteo Busato (Southeast) and Fajt took off un pursuit and quickly put 20 seconds into the peloton which was losing ground. Patrick Konrad (Bora), Paolo Lunardon (Amore e Vita) and Stephan Rabitsch (Felbermayr) joined the move before Rusvelo and CCC took control of the main group.

 

Nibali led Rebellin and Marcato over the top of the climb where the chase group was caught. The faster pace meant that the gap was down to 40 seconds but as the chase again got disorganized, Barbin, Brayan Ramirez (Colombia), Martinez, Pauwels, Busato and Michele Scartezzini (MG) took off in pursuit. Manuel Bongiorno (Bardiani) and Antonio Parrinello (D’Amico) quickly joined that move.

 

The chasers brought the gap down to 30 seconds while the peloton seemed to lose its motivation as the gap went out to 1.30. Rusvelo were still trying to chase but had a hard time against the strong break.

 

Nibali led Rebellin and Marcato over the top of the climb while the 8 chasers followed at 40 seconds. The peloton had now reduced their deficit to 1.10.

 

Bongiorno decided to try to bridge across to the leaders solo but he was quickly brought back by the peloton which was now only 27 seconds behind. Further back Stefano Nardelli (Uniero) launched a short-lived attack from the peloton which was again 1.30 behind with 28km to go.

 

The chasers were again losing ground and when they hit the climb for the final time, they were 55 seconds behind. Marcato led Rebellin and Nibali over the top where the peloton had been distanced by 1.52.

 

Bennati suffered a very untimely mechanical and had to close a 14-second gap to make it back to the front. Entering the final 20km, the chasers who had lost Scartezzini were 50 seconds behind while MG was leading the peloton at 1.27.

 

With 15km to go, the gaps were 47 seconds and 1.58 respectively and Scartezzini had now been brought back. Caja Rural and Androni had now tried to organize a chase and so they managed to take back 20 seconds in the next five kilometres.

 

With 7km to go, the gaps were 37 and 58 seconds respectively and it suddenly looked like the peloton would maybe come back. At the start of the first of the two laps of the 3km finishing circuit, it was only 40 seconds, with Caja Rural and Androni still doing their work.

 

The chasers were caught on the first lap before the leaders started the final lap with a 35-second advantage. Valerio Agnoli (Astana) did a good job to slow down the chase as MTN-Qhubeka had now also come to the fore.

 

With 2km to go, the gap was 40 seconds and as it was 28 seconds at the flamme rouge, it was clear that the break would stay away. In the end, it came down to a sprint where Bennati managed to beat Marcato and Rebellin into second and third respectively before Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani) led the peloton home.

 

With the GP di Prato done and dusted, a hectic week in Italy is over. There will be no racing here for the next week but things get busy in the week after Worlds where Tre Valli Varesine, Milan-Turin, GranPiemonte and Il Lombardia will all be held.

 

A circuit race

The 70th edition of the GP di Prato was held on a 185.8km course around the city of Prato. It could be split into two parts as the first half was made up of six laps of a 14km circuit that included the tough Carmignano climb before the riders travelled along flat roads to a shorter 10km circuit that included the short climb of Montenurlo. The final passage came 22km from the finish and from here the riders travelled along flat roads back to Prato where they ended the race by doing two laps of a flat 3km finishing circuit.

 

It was a cloudy and dry day in Italy when the riders gathered for the start. One rider was absent as German champion Emanuel Buchmann (Bora) didn’t sign in.

 

Five riders get clear

As always in Italian one-day races, it was a fast start with lots of attacks and the riders got to the first passage of Carmignano without anyone managing to escape, MTN-Qhubeka and Bardiani set the pace as they hit the slopes before Heiner Parra (Caja Rural) and Primoz Roglic (Adria) tried to get clear.

 

The Slovenian led the Colombian over the top while Giovanni Carboni (Uniero) was first from the peloton, 10 seconds behind. On the descent, the two attackers were brought back and instead Jaco Venter (MTN), Antonio Nibali (Nippo), Lorenzo Rota, Carboni (Uniero) and Lukasz Owsian (CCC) escaped at the 14km mark.

 

Italy in control

The peloton was content with that break and so they quickly got a big advantage. At the end of the first lap of the circuit, the gap was already 2.15 and it went out to more than 3 minutes before the Italian national team started to chase.

 

Venter led Rota and Nibali over the top of the climb where the gap had gone out to 3.38. At the end of the second lap, it was still 3.40.

 

Stable gap

Rota was first at the top of the climb for the third time, leading Venter and Nibali across the line while Italy led the peloton to the summit 3.25 later. It briefly went out to 4.18 but at the end of the lap it was again down to 3.30.

 

At the next passage of the climb, Venter was first followed by Nibali and Rota but now the national team had slightly accelerated, reducing their deficit to 3.06. Bardiani lent a hand to the Italian riders and kept the gap between 3.00 and 4.00 while Venter led Rota and Nibali over the top after the fifth passage of the climb.

 

Italy split the field

Bardiani had now taken complete control of the peloton but the situation was still unchanged as they hit the climb for the final time. Here the national team decided to accelerate and when Nibali led Venter and Rota over the top, the gap was only 2.20.

 

The fast pace meant that the group had been split in two, with 40 riders having made the selection. A Colombia rider tried to exploit the situation to get clear but everything came back together as they travelled to the second circuit of the race.

 

The break is caught

The fast pace meant that the gap was only 1.50 at the 88km mark and it was still the Italian team applying the pressure. They did not slow down when an MTN-Qhubeka crashed and at the 100km mark, they had brought the gap down to less than a minute.

 

At the top of the first passage of the Montemurlo climb, the gap was only 30 seconds. Again the Italian team forced a split in the peloton, with a 50-rider group getting a 25-second advantage over the second bunch. Moments later, the break was caught, setting the scene for the exciting finale.