Albert Loddo won the final stage of the Giro di Sardegna in a sprint ahead of Alessandro Petacchi, who recovered well from his crash yesterday. Roman Kreuziger took the overall after ending the day in the peloton. He won ahead of Chris Horner and Thomas Voeckler.
Lampre helped to get the break back. “The day was characterized by a lone attacker. With the help of Androni and Liquigas, we controlled this and brought him back ten kilometers from the finish,” said Lampre’s sports director Fabrizio Bontempi. “The preparation for the sprint was perfect, but Loddo anticipated it well, taking advantage of a right hand bend.”
Petacchi was thus beaten. “After his crash yesterday it was already important that he was trying to get a result again,” Bontempi said. “Despite considering Petacchi’s crash I have to emphasize that Loddo did a great job winning this short stage, tailor-made for explosive sprinters.” Petacchi did win the points classification, at least.
Kreuziger just had to finish in the bunch, to win with four seconds over Chris Horner. “It is a team win,” said Kreuziger. “It shows the cohesiveness of the team and the desire to always be competitive. The collaboration with Nibali is just one example.” But the Czech rider was happy with his performance as well. “I was curious to see how my legs would respond after the hard work [in preparation]. The form is getting better every day and I feel ready to tackle Paris-Nice with renewed ambition.” Tuesday, Kreuziger will do a final test.