Bono has the edge
ByReuters
Published 19/03/2007 at 14:16 GMT
Italy's Matteo Bono of the Lampre team won the mountainous 162 km sixth stage to San Giacomo while Germany's Andreas Kloeden grabbed the overall lead finishing ninth in the penultimate stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico race.
CYCLING Matteo Bono
Image credit: Imago
Kloeden leads the standings by three seconds from Luxembourg's Kim Kirchen with only Tuesday's final flat stage left to race.
His Astana team mate Alexander Vinokourov is third at 12 seconds, with Stefan Schumacher, who held the lead after Sunday's time trial, slipping to fourth, 22 seconds adrift.
"It's a great day for me and the Astana team because if I can keep the lead tomorrow, it'll be the first big success for the team," Kloeden told reporters.
"We knew we were the strongest team on the climb and so we tried to put Schumacher in trouble. Alexander Vinokourov attacked first and then when he was pulled back, I accelerated and got a gap on Schumacher."
Despite his strong performance, Kloeden said he was using Tirreno-Adriatico as training for July's Tour de France and added that he would not ride the Milan-San Remo race next Saturday.
"I'm 31-years-old and Milan-San Remo can be dangerous if you don't know how to ride it. I'm focusing on the Tour de France this year and so there's no point in taking any risks," the German said.
"We're riding Tirreno-Adriatico with most of our Tour de France team. It's important we learn to race together as a team and what we've done at Tirreno-Adriatico shows were already working well."
Bono's stage victory was his first as a professional and came after an impressive performance from the 23-year-old.
The Lampre rider was part of the 10-man breakaway that formed after 16 km of the stage and he then attacked alone four km from the summit.
Bono finished 32 seconds ahead of fellow Italian Enrico Gasparotto, with compatriot Giovanni Visconti third, 41 seconds back.
The week-long Tirreno-Adriatico race ends on Tuesday with the 177-km seventh stage from Civitella del Tronto to San Benedetto del Tronto.
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