August 23, 2005

Victory at San Sebastian

Saunier Duval Prodir on the top
Today it became apparent that the Clásica San Sebastián brings good luck to the SAUNIER DUVAL-PRODIR squad: Perdiguero won it in 2004, and Zaballa and Rodríguez made a double triumph for the team today, as Zaballa won the race and Rodriguez finished second. This year's edition will surely remain in our minds for a long time to come. Just 30 km into the race, riders started attacking but eventually only six men managed to stay ahead, namely Christophe Moreau, Michael Barry, Patxi Vila, Ruben Lobato, Mauro Facci and Roberto Laiseka. With 23 km to go, on the last climb of the day, up the Alto de Gurutze, the break was caught by the peloton. Chris Horner launched an attack and four riders had a gap: Horner, Leipheimer, Zandio and Solari. But Rebellin closed the gap, together with Menchov, Garzelli and Rodríguez, who were, in turn, joined by other riders. With 6 km to go, there were seven leaders, and it looked like the race would most likely be won by one of them. Then David Moncoutié, Constantino Zaballa and Eddy Mazzoleni reacted a truly good escape. At 5 km before the finish line, they were ahead by 40 seconds, and after another 2 km, Zaballa had a good gap, enough for him to cross the finish line alone, 30 seconds ahead of Joaquim Rodriguez, his teammate.
It was a spectacular result for SAUNIER DUVAL-PRODIR: Zaballa scooped a big victory, Rodríguez took second place, Lobato wore the mountain jersey, and the team was first in the team classification. SAUNIER DUVAL-PRODIR is now ranked fifth in the team classification on the Pro Tour.