Freire wins uphill battle
ByReuters
Published 10/03/2006 at 15:31 GMT
Spain's Oscar Freire used his fast sprint finish to win the third stage of Tirreno-Adriatico and take the overall lead on Friday. The Rabobank rider outsprinted Igor Astarloa and Riccardo Ricco on the difficult uphill finish to the centre of Paglieta aft
CYCLING 2006 Tirreno-Adriatico Oscar Freire
Image credit: Imago
Thanks to the 10-second time bonus awarded to stage winners, Freire also took the overall race lead. Italians Alessandro Ballan and Davide Rebellin are second and third respectively overall, 10 seconds behind Freire.
Previous race leader Paolo Bettini of Italy was forced to retire after crashing mid-way through the stage.
Freire has been world champion three times but has raced infrequently in recent years due to back injuries and saddle sores.
"I'm happy to have won after all my problems," Freire said.
"Until today I didn't have a chance of winning and could only have hoped to finish second behind Paolo Bettini. Unfortunately he had to retire after a crash. I hope he gets better quickly but I made sure I didn't miss out on the chance of winning."
Freire praised his Rabobank team mates after they set him up for the sprint.
Thomas Dekker, Michael Boogerd and Juan Antonio Flecha chased down several attacks on the four-km climb to the finish and then strung out the peloton with a series of accelerations.
Astarloa lead out the sprint but Freire accelerated past him in the final hundred metres.
"I have to thank my team mates because they did an excellent job. I wouldn't have won without them," Freire said.
The start of the stage was delayed by 35 minutes after riders initially refused to race over an early climb because of snow and cold rain.
The riders eventually started after race organisers and judges threatened to disqualify them.
Saturday's 219-km fourth stage is from Paglieta to Civitanova Marche on the Adriatic coast.
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