Today took place the 96th edition of “Tour of Flanders”, second Monument Classic of UCI World Tour calendar after “Milano-Sanremo”. Luca Paolini is the best performer for Katusha Team: the Italian rider, after an attacking race, closes 7th, 38” far from the winner Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quick Step). The competition is characterized by a 15-man breakaway, between whom Vladimir Isaychev: the escape reaches a highest gap of 5’30” before being caught with 49 kilometres to go. With the group in lock step, Paolini tries to attack in Paterberg, followed by Flecha (Sky) and Jerome (Europcar). The blitz managed to break the group: the trio is caught by eight more riders, and in few kilometres the athletes ahead reaches a good gap over the followers. With 18 kilometres to go, on the last

 

passing through Kwaremont, happens the crucial moment of the race: Boonen, Filippo Pozzato (Farnese Vini) and Alessandro Ballan (BMC) managed to leave the rivals, reaching a highest gap of 1′. The chase of the group is useless: Boonen wins the three-man sprint, Pozzato takes the second position and Ballan is third. Paolini reached the finishing line with the first chasing group, 38” far from the trio ahead, and took the seventh place.
“Today I think I was in a good shape – said Paolini – so I tried to do my race and fight for win until the finish. The blitz by Pozzato, Ballan and Boonen in Kwaremont was really unexpected: they’re great champions, so they could reach the finishing line without being caught, also because in our chasing group there were two riders from Omega Pharma-Quick step that, obviously, didn’t cooperate. When I saw the group had no chance to recover I tried myself, but it was too late: so in the end I did my sprint just in order to obtain a good position in the top-10. It’s a pity because the team was really incredible: they gave me a lot of help with an incredible work. Anyways, now we have a whole week before ‘Paris-Roubaix’: we’ll try to recover some energies and prepare this competition at our best”.
“I’m really happy with the way our team worked today – said the Head of Sport Department, Christian Henn – our riders did a great performance. Luca, especially, did a lot of work, trying to do his best to reach a good position in the end. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to enter the podium, but we were protagonist of a very active race and we should be proud of our team performance in this ‘Tour of Flanders'”.

KATUSHA MEDIA SERVICE