CORVARA - The four year reign of Emmanuele Negrini in the Maratona Dles Dolomites came to an end yesterday with the victory of Timothy David Jones. The Zimbabwe-born Italian took control of the race from the get-go together with teammate Raimondas Rumsas, who had to retire from the race later on. Jones was engaged in a fierce dual with Italian Michele Ladomada, whom he eventually beat in the sprint. 22-year old Bulgarian Alex Pauliukovich took the final step on the podium, three-and-a-half minutes down. Negrini had to settle for fourth place five-and-a-half minutes behind Jones, and Fabio Bulgarelli concluded in fifth place.
Negrini had won the past four editions of the Maratona. Last week in Aprica he also couldn't achieve more than fifth.
Barbara Lancioni and Monica Gallucci sprinted for the win in the women's race, with the former scoring her second consecutive win. Monica Bandini took third.
8500 riders started for the 21st edition, like last year in superb and even warm conditions. The Maratona remains the most internationally established granfondo of the year with 35 countries present. Almost 20,000 people wanted to get in this year, but only 8500 were allowed to start.
The ECB Cyclosports section had four riders in this year's edition. I had a very good run, sitting in a small group of about 12 including Lancioni and Gallucci until the descent towards the Giau. I hit a bump going into a sharp corner, missed my braking zone and slammed hard against a wall of rock with my left body side. It took a minute before I had my senses back and realised I could still move everything. That was the end of my race while riding in the top 80 according to the intermediate times... As the left brake handle was bent, and my front wheel was not 100% straight, I didn't trust going down full speed anymore. In addition, I suffered a few bruised ribs, big swellings on shoulder and hip and a badly bruised elbow so even standing on the pedals on the Giau and Falzarego hurt. I crossed the line still in 5:42, only seven minutes above last year's time. I trust I would have gone under 5:30 and even 5:20 this year. My detailed report follows in due course.
Lorenzo Borghini beat his 2004 time by 12 minutes on the granfondo. Riding better than ever this season, Lorenzo entered Corvara in 6:52:51. A great achievement. His wife Julia opted for the mediofondo after having tasted the percorso corto last season. She came home in style in 6:55. Morten Hansen did not find the legs back to brought him a splendid 10:15 time in last year's Oetztaler. Morten redirected himself to the mediofondo and arrived in 5:38:57. Not much behind him was Holger Hacklaender, from Frankfurt, in 5:45:45.
A big name was in the race this year: Greg LeMond, three-time Tour de France winner and double World Champion, got spotted during the race and indeed appears in the result list with a time of 5:44:24 (227th). That's two minutes behind me :-)
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