Sacha Modolo (Bardiani) repeated his win in the Coppa Bernocchi which is the second race in the highly prestigious Italian race series, Trittico Lombardo. The Italian who will join Lampre next year, kept his calm in a hectic finale and took a narrow win ahead of Roberto Ferrari (Lampre) in the final sprint.

Sacha Modolo is usually flying at this time of the season and 2013 seems to be no different. Having  won 6 stages in the Tour of Quinghai Lake recently, he continued his run of success with a repeat win in the Coppa Bernocchi.

The race which is the second in the prestigious Trittico Lombardo race series, came down to its usual bunch sprint. Modolo used lead-out man Sonny Colbrelli to reel in a dangerous late attack from yesterday's winner Filippo Pozzato (Lampre) and then kept his calm in the hectic finale.

He finally produced his devastating sprint and held off Roberto Ferrari who was well-placed in his wheel, to take his second consecutive win in his home race. Filippo Baggio (Ceramica Flaminia) was the fastest rider in the finale and approached rapidly from far behind, ultimately running out of metres to take the final spot on the podium.

The race series continues tomorrow with its most prestigious race, Tre Valli Varesine. The sprinters will take a step into the background and allow the climbers their chance to shine on the hilly course

An aggressive start

The 200km race is usually one for the sprinters. From the start in Legnano, the riders travelled to a 16,7km circuit which contained two smaller climbs and had to be tackled 6 times. From there, the riders headed back to Legnano along flat roads to finally finish with two laps on a flat 5,6km circuit.

Many teams planned to break the traditional script of a sprint finish and so the race was off to an extremely aggressive start. Teammates Kohei Uchima and Julian Arredondo (Nippo) were the first to give it a go but they were reeled in a little later.

More attacks

Constant attacks were launched and Davide Malacarne (Europcar), Alessandro Mazzi (Utensilnord), Marco Frapporti (Androni), Andrea Masciarelli (Utensilnord), Lukasz Owsian (CCC), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Enea Cambianici (Lampre), Kevin Reza (Europcar), Juan Pablo Valencia (Colombia), Stijn Neirynck (Topsport Vlaanderen), Giacomo Forconi (Ceramica Flaminia) and once again Arredondo were all part of the early action. All moves were, however, neutralized while the riders covered more than 46km during the first hour.

The elastic finally snapped when Adriano Malori (Lampre) launched the first of what should be his first of many attacks. He was joined by Arredondo, Carlos Quintero (Colomia) and Vorganov and a little later Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani), Kevin Seeldrayers (Astana), Remi Pauriol (Sojasun), Mauro Finetto (Vini Fantini) and Gianfranco Zilioli (Androni) also got across to form a 9-rider group.

Sinkewitz bridges across

The pace did, however, not slow down as many teams had missed the move. Topsport Vlaanderen, Utensilnord and Amore e Vita all combined forces to reel in the escape but the gap remained rather stable at 1 minute for a long time.

The first time up the day's first clim, Patrik Sinkewitz (Meridiana Kamen) who had been one of the strongest in yesterday's race, proved his incredible power by bridging across to the leaders. The peloton finally gave up and allowed the gap to grow to a little less than 5 minutes.

Europcar launches counterattack

Prior to the fourth passage of the main climb, Europcar hit the front of the peloton and brought the gap down to less than 2 minutes before launching an offensive on the ascent. A 4-rider chase group with Bjorn Thurau, Cyril Gautier, Malacarne (all Europcar) and Federico Rocchetti (Utensilnord) was formed.

Bardiani now decided to put Modolo's rival sprinters under pressure and so the team accelerated furiously as they approached the penultimate passage of the climb. Matteo Rabottini (Vini Fantini) attacked on the ascent and bridged across to Rocchetti who had dropped all of his Europcar companions. Meanwhile, Pauriol fell off the pace in the front group and like Malacarne and Gautier, he was reeled in by the peloton.

Anarchy rules

More attacks was launched on the descent, and Rabottini, Rocchetti, Thurau had joined forces with Miguel Rubiano (Androni), Pavel Brutt (Katusha), Elia Favilli (Lampre), Francesco Gavazzi (Astana) and Enrico Gasparotto (Astana) to form a chase group. Those 8 riders made it across to the front group which now contained no less than 18 riders.

MTN-Qhubeka had no rider ahead and so they started to chase. The front group was, however, too big and there was no cooperation at all. Hence, the gap stayed below the one-minute mark.

The group grows

On the final passage of the climb, Arredondo and Gavazzi tried to attack but they got nowhere. Alessandro Proni (Vini Fantini) and Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha) made similarly fruitless accelerations from the peloton but were countered by Simone Ponzi (Astana), Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha), Pozzato and Simone Campagnaro (Nippo) who bridged across to the leaders.

Moment, it was, however, all back together as MTN-Qhubeka had been joined By Topsport Vlaanderen and Sojasun in their chase efforts. This allowed new attacks to be launched but no one appeared to be successful.

Modolo on the attack

Finally, Julien El Fares (Sojasun) opened up a gap and he was joined by Ignatiev. Duber Quintero (Colombia), Gasparotto and Andrea Palini (Lampre) also got acrooss while Malori and another Colombia rider followed a little later.

Modolo launched a surprise attack and with Eugenio Alafaci (Leopard Trek), Malacarne, Leonardo Pinnizotto (Nippo), Campagnaro and Ponzi in his wheel, he made it up to the front group. The presence of Modolo spelled the end of the breakaway but Ignatiev, Malori and El Fares made a counterattack before it was all brought back together.

Bardiani in control

New attacks were launched by Masciarelli, Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani), Jan Hirt (Leopard), Duber Quintero and Pieter Jacobs (Topsport) but no one had any success. Finally, Bardiani decided that the anarchy had to come to an end and so they put Pirazzi and Angelo Pagani on the front.

When they were joined by Duber and Carlos Quintero (Colombia) and Jacques Van Rensburg (MTN-Qhubeka), the pace was kept sufficiently high to discourage any further attacks. All was set for a sprint finish when they passed the finish line for the first time to start the first of the final 2 laps.

Malori tries one last attack

That was when Malori decided to make one last big effort and the Italian time triallist managed to build up a 10-second gap. MTN-Qhubeka was left to do all the work on the first lap but when they finally got assistance from Ceramica Flaminia, the gap was closed just as the peloton started the final lap.

Meron Russom (MTN) was the next to try but he was quickly overtaken by Proni who managed to build up a solid gap. Lampre was now in control with its entire team and just before the flamme rouge, they got assistance from Astana to reel in the lone Eritrean.

As they passed the red flame, Pozzato launched his finisseur attack but Colbrelli dug deep to close it down. A Vini Fantini rider opened his sprint but Modolo was always well-placed, finally launching the sprint that have him his second Bernocchi win in a row.

Result:

1. Sacha Modolo 4.38.35

2. Roberto Ferrari

3. Filippo Baggip

4. Andrea Piechele

5. Daniele Colli

More results to come