Francesco Gavazzi (Androni) took his first big win in a one-day race since 2010 when he finished off excellent work from the Androni team to win Memorial Marco Pantani. After his team had worked hard to create a small 19-rider front group and keep the peloton at bay, the Italian beat Matteo Busato (Wilier) and Paolo Toto (Norda) in the sprint to take his second win of the 2016 season.

In the early part of his career, Francesco Gavazzi seemed to be destined to become a great classics rider. During the 2009, 2010 and 2011 season he won no less 8 races, most notably a stage in the 2011 Vuelta a Espana, stages in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and the Coppa Agostoni semi-classic.

However, Gavazzi disappeared into an anonymous domestique role at Astana where he only briefly returned to his winning ways in the queen stage at the 2012 Tour of Beijing. For almost four years, he failed to take a single victory and his career seemed to be heading for a disappointing end when he left the WorldTour and joined Southeast for the 2015 season.

His first year at the pro continental level was not a great success as he was in a team with similar riders like Simone Ponzi and Mauro Finetto and he moved to Androni for the 2016 season. That turned out to be the best decision of his career as he has been reinvigorated since he joined Savio’s team.

Gavazzi was close to victory on numerous occasions in the spring and had to settle for two frustrating second places at GP Costa degli Etruschi and Giro dell’Appenninno. However, he never gave up and his endless string of top 10 results culminated when he won a stage at the Volta a Portugal. After he sprinted to third in Coppa Agostoni two days ago, he took his second win in today’s Memorial Pantani.

Gavazzi’s win came after excellent work from the Androni team. Franco Pellizotti and Rodolfo Torres made the race hard during the passages of the Monetevecchio climb and then created a 19-rider group that also included Gavazzi. The two climbers then dug deep on the flat run-in to the finish to keep the peloton at bay and finally Gavazzi finished it off by winning the sprint.

The 13th edition of Memorial Marco Pantani was held on a well-known 189.8km course that both started and finished in Cesenatico. From the start in the coastal city, the riders traveled along flat roads to the hills in the interior of the country. Here they did three laps of a 35.6km circuit which included the Montevecchio climb, one of Pantani’s favourite training climbs. The 5km ascent had an average gradient of 6% and included sections of 13-14%. The top was reached for the final time with 61.1km to go and then the riders descended back towards the coast. Along the way they tackled a small climb to Longiano but the final 40km were either flat or descending. The race ended with four laps of a flat, non-technical 5.3km circuit in Cesenatico.

The riders had sunny conditions when they gathered for the start where Marco Zanotti (Parkhotel) andE Emanuel Kiserlovski (Meridiana) were the only non-starters. As soon as the flag was dropped, the attacks started. However, it was difficult to get clear and after 15km of fast racing, no one had escaped. Meanwhile, Damiano Cunego (Nippo) spent valuable energy as he had to rejoin the peloton after a puncture.

The attacking continued and in the chaos a crash involving Francsco Gavazzi (Androni), Yonder Godoy (Wilier), Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani) and Simone Petilli (Lampre-Merida) split the group. The involved riders had to work very hard to rejoin the peloton but at the 30km mark it was all back together.

No one had managed to get clear as they hit the circuit where Petilli and Julen Amezqueta (Wilier) were involved in another crash. Moments later, a 24-rider group managed to get clear on a descent and after two riders bridged across, a 26-rider group had gathered with an 8-second advantage after 36km of racing. Another five riders made the junction but it was in vain as they break was caugh at the 38km mark.

Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani) and Marco Frapporti (Androni) attacked and managed to build a 20-seconds advantage after one hour at an average speed of 44.8km/h. At the 50km mark, they had extended it to 40 seconds and the situation was unchanged when they hit the climb for the first time.

Tonelli and Frapporti used the ascent to increase their gap to 1.36 before they again started to lose ground. After Tonelli had led them over the top, Paolo Ciavatta (D’Amico) was first from the peloton 52 seconds later.

The two leaders again managed to gain some time and had pushed the gap out to 1.25 as they reachd the 62km mark. The slower pace allowed Michele Scartezzini (Norda) to try to bridge the gap but he never got more than 15 seconds.

As they hit the climb for the second time, the bunch started to split and the attacking started again when Marco Tecchio (Uniero) and Julien Loubet (Fortuneo) took off in pursuit. After 70km of racing, the two leaders had an advantage of 1.30 over the two chasers and 1.43 over the peloton which was made up of 23 riders.

The two chasers were brought back by the first group which was 1.18 behind at the 78km mark. Lampre-Merida led the second group and they managed to bring the bunch back together after they had crested the sumit.

Scartezzine refused to give up and at the end of two hours at an aveage speed of 41.55km/h, the Italian again tried to bridge the gap. However, he failed again and he was back in the fold when Caja Rural took control 1.47 behind the two leaders.

Caja Rural’s fast pace had a big effect and the gap was down to just 15 seconds as they hit the climb again. The two leaders were caught on the lower slopes and then five surged clear. Two riders bridged the gap and Petilli, Manuel Bongiorno, Tonelli (Bardiani), Davide Rebellin (CCC), Rodolfo Torres (Androni), Ricardo Vilela (Caja Rural) and Danilo Celano (Amore e Vita) crested the summit with a 12-second advantage over their nearest chasers and 32 second over a second bunch.

While Eduardo Sepulveda (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) and Clemens Fankhauser (Tirol) got back on their bikes after a small crash, the two chase groups merged and gathered 35 seconds behind the leaders. Tonelli soon sat up and fell back to the peloton which was 22 seconds behind at the 100km mark..

Caja Rural were still working on the front and kept the gap at around 30 seconds. Again they split the group and it was around 20 rides who gathered behind the six leaders. After 107km of racing, they caught the breakaway and from there it was a big battle between the two pelotons who were separated by around 30 seconds for a long time.

As they approached Montevecchi, Fausto Masnada (Lampre-Merida), Mirco Maestri (Bardiani), Jonathan Lastra (Caja Rural), Gianfranco Zilioli (Nippo) and Davide Mucelli (Meridiana) finally managed to get clear. They hit the climb with an advantage of 22 seconds.

As they tackled the ascent, Maestri was dropped while Androni started to work hard in the peloton and while the group exploded, they brought the leaders back at the 123km mark. Celano then took off afain and reached the top with a 10-second lead of the peloton which was led by Franco Pelizotti and Torres (Androni).

Celano was brought back at the 126km mark and it was a 21-rider group that gathered in front. Przemyslaw Niemiec and Manuele Mori (Lampre-Merida), Manuel Bongiorno, Enrico Barbin (Bardiani), Francesco Gavazzi, Franco Pellizzotti and Rodolfo Torres Agudelo (Androni-Giocattoli), Davide Rebellin (CCC Sprandi), Jonathan Lastra Martinez and Ricardo Vilela (Caja Rural), Matteo Busato and Daniel Martinez (Wilier Triestina), Gianfranco Zilioli (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Alexander Vdovin (Lokosphinx), Marco Tecchio (Unieuro Wilier), Gianfranco Di Francesco and Paolo Totò (Norda Mg K Vis), Danilo Celano (Amore & Vita), Davide Mucelli and Antonio Santoro (Meridiana) and Marco Tizza (D'Amico Bottecchia) had a 43-second advantage over a first chase group and 1.03 over the peloton.

The front group worked initially lost some ground but then managed to push the gap out to 50 seconds where it stayed for a while. Unfortunately, Vilela suffered a puncture and so was left behind.

At the 150km mark, the gap had gone out to 1.26 and the balance started to top. However, Wilier and Caja Rural got organized in the bunch and as CCC also came to the fore, the gap came down to 52 seconds.

At the first passage of the line, the gap was again just below a minute and with 21km to go, it was 58 seconds. Wilier were doing their best but they were still 59 seconds behind at the end of the first lap of the finishing circuit.

At the end of the second lap, the gap had gone out to 1.13, with Bongiorno doing a lot of work in the front group. While he continued to work hard, a crash brought down Celano and Di Francesco, leaving just 18 riders to press on.

As they tackled the penultimate lap, Zilioli attacked and he managed to build an advantage of 10 seconds when he hit the final 5km. At this point, the peloton had given up and was 1.45 behind.

Androni were working hard and brought Zilioli back with 3km to go and after Celano and Di Francesco had rejoined the group, the race was decided in a 19-rider sprint. Here Gavazzi finished off the teamwork in splendid fashion as he beat Busato and Toto in the final dash to the line after Lastra had hit the deck on the finishing straight.

With Memorial Marco Pantani done and dusted, attention turns to the two-day stage race Giro della Toscana which kicks off on Tuesday.