The Gran Premio Beghelli saw a select bunch sprint decide the race victor with Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani) being the fastest. Manuel Belletti (Southeast) was 2nd and Roberto Ferrari (Lampre) took 3rd place.
MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung was put on display for the majority of the day by Merhawi Kudus, as he and Jef van Meirhaeghe (Topsport Vlaanderen) formed the 2 rider break of the day. Riding at a maximum of 4 minutes ahead of the peloton, Merhawi was able to get the better of the Belgian at all the intermediate sprints and GPM’s to win both those classifications today.
The two man escape was not going to survive the chase from the peloton though and they were caught with 60km to go. The final local circuit contained a climb that would be raced at full gas on each occasion, as expected, and the peloton became drastically thinned out.
Our man for day, Kristian Sbaragli, was strong enough to be a part of the final selection but a long season had taken its toll on the Italian and he was not able to feature in the sprint finish today. Natnael Berhane was our highest placed finisher in 17th with Kristian in 19th. Nevertheless it was still a good end to the season for our boys in Italy with Merhawi making two trips to the podium.
Alex Sans Vega – Sport Director
