Oetztaler - Corradini and Dekker re-do la Marmotte as Negrini allegedly retired!

SOELDEN - The Oetztaler Radmarathon produced exactly the same result as its French counterpart la Marmotte in July: Antonio Corradini wins ahead of Bert Dekker. The Italian of the Salieri Team only didn't wait till the sprint to defeat the Dutchman and finished with a leading margin of 1'42" . Corradini succeeds Emanuele Negrini, winner of the past two Oetztalers, who has reportedly ended his competitive cycling career following his fifth victory in the Maratona Dles Dolomites two months ago.

Negrini is a former professional rider (a.o. Cantina Tollo alongside Danilo Di Luca) who dominated the international mountain cyclosportives for several years. He also won la Marmotte and the GF Marco Pantani twice, as well as many other granfondos on the Italian circuit. Although still only 34, Negrini allegedly finds it harder and harder to combine his job with cycling at this level.

If there is a ranking order within Team Salieri, Corradini has nicely taken over from Negrini in the course of the summer. At 37, he has become the benchmark for the big mountain events. His Oetztaler win came in a fantastic time of 7:00:49, the second fastest ever, helped of course by the brilliant atmospheric conditions on the day. 

Andreas Laner completed the podium in third place. The women's event turned into a major dual between MG K. Vis teammates Monica Bandini and Monia Gallucci, decided in favour of the former in a time of 8:18:40.

Other well-known names of the German cyclo circuit are Nino Ackermann (Team Lexxi), who finished 22nd in 7:28:26, proving that his 4th place in Zernez in July was no coincidence and that he just had a bad day at Rad am Ring last week. His teammate at Lexxi, Alex Bauer - winner of last year's T-Mobile Cycling Tour - arrived 120th in 8:08:11. Last week's winner on the Nurburgring, Jan Wallauer, came in 48th (7:50:33).