Dekker ends in yellow
ByReuters
Published 14/03/2006 at 15:03 GMT
Thomas Dekker (Rabobank) maintained his 14-second lead over Joerg Jaksche to win the Tirreno-Adriatico on Tuesday. Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) won the final stage of the week-long race, claiming victory in a final sprint in front of Robbie McEwen (Davita
CYCLING 2006 Tirreno-Adriatico Servigliano - Servigliano Dekker
Image credit: Reuters
Aged just 21, Dekker became the third Dutchman to win the Tirreno-Adriatico.
He joins Joop Zoetemelk in 1985 and Erik Dekker in 2002 as Dutch winners. The two Dekkers are not related.
Italy's Alessandro Ballan was third overall at 20 seconds after Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi won the final 166 km flat stage from Campli to San Benedetto del Tronto ahead of Robbie McEwen of Australia and Italy's Paride Grillo.
Giuseppe Saronni of Italy is the youngest winner of Tirreno-Adriatico, claiming it in 1978 aged 20.
Dekker won by riding consistently well in all seven stages of the race and took the lead after finishing third in the key 20-km time trial on Sunday.
"During the winter I chose Tirreno-Adriatico as my first objective of the season and so I'm very happy I've won. I'm going to celebrate with some champagne," Dekker said.
"It's never easy to win a big race and I was nervous even during the last stage. I was scared of crashing on the final circuits because it was very fast and dangerous.
"Riders were fighting for positions and so I got on Juan Antonio Flecha's wheel for some protection."
Thanks to 50 points for overall victory and a point for his third place in the time trial, Dekker is now second in the UCI ProTour standings. Paris-Nice winner Floyd Landis of the U.S. leads the season-long competition with 52 points.
Dekker will take part in Saturday's Milan-San Remo race and said he would work for his Rabobank team leader and 2004 San Remo winner Oscar Freire of Spain.
FINAL RESULTS: Tirreno-Adriatico
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