Road Bike Racing - Tirreno-Adriatico

I like this race. It should be a good indicator of who's sprinting well. Zabel, Petacchi, Friere and Cipollini make for a great bunch sprint.

Bettini should have won it last year. He will this year.

Looks as though Petacchi got it right today, with the ever-present Erik Zabel finishing in second place.

Mindless (but interesting to me) statistics and info about the race available to everyone at Cyclingnews.com:

This stage race has no prolog or TT.

It has very few big climbs, I think two on stage 4 and 1 on stage 5 or visa versa.

Roger DeVlaeminck has won this race 6 times in a row and Eddy Merckx has never won it.

It goes from one coast of Italy to the other, so is called the Sea to Sea race.

I wish I were there now.

Petacchi makes it two in a row.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2004/mar04/tirreno/stage2/s-petacchi2.jpg

Petacchi had just a few wins in 2002, but in 2003 some of his sprints were unbelievably dominating. Its not like he would win by half a bike length... he would get 10+ meters on the best sprinters in the world.
It continues.

I sort of hope Cipo can get his old power back :D

Petacchi said that his sudden success was very much a mental thing. He said in an interview that when he won his first Giro stage, something in his head clicked that made him realize he was a top-end sprinter, and he suddenly started winning all the time.

Oscar Freire wins. Notice the slightly glazed over eyes of euphoria.

Tirreno and Paris-Nice have shown us that the classics contenders all have terrific form this year. The spring should be incredible.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2004/mar04/tirreno/stage7/10.jpg

Who did I say would win?? :D