So we got our favourite 3 a touch wrong on friday (https://www.probikekit.co.uk/blog/?p=4328) with Cav, Boasson Hagen and Thor touted as the winners.

We arrived back at home on saturday afternoon to watch the live coverage which started with about 65k to go with a beer or two (we’d earned this with 2 hours of the wet and windy Lake District’s lanes) to be greeted with Cav in a second group and looking quite tired. This didn’t bode well but we stuck it out, including the regular and disturbing Sidi adverts which end with Pozatto and a pair of ergo II’s protecting his modesty. As usual this race is fairly ordinary until the final K’s when everything goes out of the window. The race started in similar wet conditions with a few spills and a broken collar bone which soon had the riders looking less than ‘euro’:

Mucky

ISD, the team with the dayglo kits and Cippolini bikes were keen to push things on but couldn’t compete with Liquigas and FDJ although the young Ukranian Grabovskyy of ISD soon caught and rode straight past lone attacker Bouet on the Capo Berta.

The fashion police also weren’t too pleased with the ISD’s peaked helmets:

Peaked helmet in a road race?!

After all of this the race arrived at the final climb, the Poggio with Garzelli putting the hammer down (returning a favour?) preventing any attacks – we all wish we could ride up hills like this! At the summit a Columbia rider had a go along with some others and but the descent they all came back together, Nibali from Liquigas leading the way downhill. With one of our favourites Thor around we though he was in with a good chance. As the sprint loomed Boonen was lurking but just couldn’t match Oscar Freire on the day. The Rabobank rider easily held him off and stormed over the line for his 3rd win of this awesome classic race.

Booned tried, Thor just in the background

Sky didn’t really feature which was a shame, with their best rider Flecha finishing 18th and Boasson Hagen 6 minutes down in the same group as Cavendish. They did look cool though, the massive deep section rims and understated kit combination going down very well:

Sky

Thor managed 6th, just finishing this race deserves respect, when was the last time you raced 300k’s?!  We’re now looking forward to Ghent and the Tour of Catalunya which begins today with an individual TT with Cav and Wiggins hoping to fly the British flag.