Finally a victory for the Ale-Jet!
After two second places in a spring disrupted by illness, Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) has finally taken his first win of 2011. The Ale-Jet from La Spezia won the second stage of the Volta a Catalunya between Santa Coloma de Farners and Banyoles at the head of a peloton sprint. Petacchi beat José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) in a close sprint that had to be decided by the photo finish. Manuel Cardoso (RadioShack) finished in third place at the end of the 169km stage.
“The lack of victory was not too heavy for me, I was suffering more from bad luck in my health condition,” said Petacchi after his victory.
“Yesterday I missed one good chance,” he explained, referring to his second place behind breakaway stage winner Gatis Smukulis (HTC-Highroad), “today we did not fail. My teammates controlled the breakaway, then [Daniele] Pietropolli and [David] Loosli were perfect in supporting me just before the sprint.
“Rojas was a tough opponent,” added the Ale-Jet, “but my desire to win was great and it helped me to put my wheel a few centimetres in front of his.”
The first escape of the day came after just 4km, when Marek Rutkiewicz (CCC Polsat-Polkowice), Ruben Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Jan Tratatnik (Quick Step), Jose Alberto Benitez (Andalucia-Caja Granada) and David de la Cruz (Caja Rural) got away; the lethargy of the peloton was such that it took the five riders just 2km to pull out a minute’s lead.
After 35km though, with the group’s lead up to 4’26”, Tratnik was unable to follow the pace and dropped back to the peloton; the remaining four fugitives continued.
The four riders’ advantage was to increase to almost 6 minutes in the next few kilometres, then began to reduce steadily as Petacchi’s Lampre-ISD team came to the front of the peloton. The blue-fuchsia squad was determined not to miss out as they had done in stage 1 when Smukulis was allowed to stay away.
After 94km disaster struck the breakaway group, effectively putting an end to any chance it had of staying away, when Rutkiewicz and de la Cruz both suffered punctures. The other two riders waited for them to catch up but the lost time and interrupted rhythm meant that the break was doomed; they were eventually caught with 28km to go on the first of four 9.4km finishing circuits.
With the break caught Lampre-ISD sat back and allowed the Movistar and Sky teams to control the front of the peloton. Giacomo Nizzolo (Leopard Trek) and Alexandr Pliushkin (Katusha) tried a late attack but were both brought back and the Lampre-ISD team moved forward once more to launch Petacchi.
The Italian managed to just put his front wheel in front of Rojas’ but had to wait for the race commissaires to review the finish photo before he had his victory confirmed.
Despite a mid-stage puncture, race leader Smukulis passed a largely event-free day and finished safely in the peloton.