Leonardo Duque took his second win for Colombia when he won the final Italian race of the season, GP Beghelli, in a sprint finish. At the end of an aggressive race, the Colombian beat the Lampre duo Manuel Mori and Elia Favilli to end his season in the best possible way.

Leonardo Duque had a difficult start to his time with the Colombia team and failed to make much of an impression in the first part of the season. He finally got things going in the Tour de l'Ain where he won a stage and he has shown great form towards the end of the season.

Today he ended his year on a high when he won the final Italian race of the season, GP Beghelli. He made it up the Zappolino climb 10 times and was well-prepared when a reduced peloton had to sprint for the win following the absorption of the final of the many escapees that dominated the very aggressive race.

Duque showed his strength as a sprinter when he took his second win of the season by beating Manuele Mori in the final dash to the line. Elia Favilli joined his teammate Mori on the podium by finishing 3rd and so Lampre got very close to a win in what has been a fantastic final few weeks for the team.

With the win, Duque brought Colombia's season tally up to 3 and can now take a well-earned rest. The race ended the Italian season and Tuesday's Nationale Sluitingsprijs in Belgium and Sunday's GP des Nations are the only races remaining on the European calendar.

A difficult circuit

The 196,3km GP Beghelli brought the Italian season to a close with its usual route that included an opening 63,3km section and finished with 10 laps on the 13,3km circuit that included the 1,6km Zappolino climb with its 7% average gradient. The race is usually decided by a small group that escapes the final time up the climb or in a reduced bunch sprint.

Early in the race, 9 riders managed to get clear when Damiano Cunego (Lampre Merida), Marco Coledan (Bardiani Valvole Csf Inox), Vojcech Hacecky (Dukla Praha), Maciej Paterski (Cannondale), Axel Domont (Ag2r La Mondiale), Gianfranco Zilioli (Androni Giocattoli Venezuela), Dalivier Ospina Navarro (Colombia), Pavel Kochetkov (Rusvelo) and Alfredo Balloni (Utensilnord) built up a small gap. Sergio Paulinho (Team Saxo Tinkoff), Davide Vilella (Cannondale), Nikolay Mihaylov (CCCPolsat), Tsgabu Grmay (MTN Qhubeka), Enrico Rossi (Meridiana Kamen) and Andrea Pasqualon (Bardiani Valvole Csf Inox) set off in pursuit and after a short chase, those 6 riders joined the front group to form a 15-rider breakaway.

The gap grows

That group was allowed to build up a 2.30 gap when the peloton briefly reacted and brought it down to 1.40. However, they quickly decided to step off the gas and the gap grew up to a maximum of 5.50 when they were at the midpoint of the second lap on the final circuit.

The peloton now significantly upped the pace and when they had finished the fourth lap, the gap was down to just 2.50. The escapees had to up the pace and when they did so, Ospina, Mihaylov and Hacecky fell off the pace the next time up the Zappolino. Hacecky and Ospina managed to rejoin the front group but Mihaylov was absorbed by the peloton.

Paterski sets off on his own

On the sixth lap, Paterski attacked on his own and at one point, he was 34 seconds ahead of his chasers. However, he was caught on the 7th lap which also saw Ospina and Hacecky being dropped for good.

Winner Anacona (Lampre) had bridged across to the front group and the Colombian split up the breakaway the next time up the climb. Paulinho was the first to get dropped and by the time, they reached the top, only Anacona, Balloni, Coledan and Rossi were left in the front group. Zilioli was chasing 13 seconds behind while Cunego was 11 seconds further adrift.

A front quintet is formed

Zilioli managed to rejoin the leaders while Rossi got dropped.  When they started the penultimate lap, Zilioli, Coledan, Anacona and Balloni were 34 seconds ahead of the peloton.

Coledan dropped his companions on the climb and managed to extend his lead to 42 seconds by the time he passed the finish line to start the final lap. At this point, he was the only escapee as all other attackers had been caught.

Coledan did his best to stay away but with 6km to go, he was reabsorbed by the peloton. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r), Davide Rebellin (CCC) and Kristijan Durasek (Lampre) tried to an unsuccessful attack and the subsequent attempt from Matteo Tosatto (Saxo-Tinkoff), Villella and Daniele Colli (Vini Fantini) was similarly ill-fated. Instead, all was set to be decided in a sprint where Duque proved his speed to end his season on a high.

Result:

1. Leonardo Duque 4.24.07

2. Manuele Mori

3. Elia Favilli

4. Manuel Belletti

5. Sonny Colbrelli

6. Bartlomiej Matysiak

7. Sergey Pomoshnikov

8. Alessandro Malaguti

9. Andrea Masciarelli

10. Rafael Andriato