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Alexey Lutsenko takes surprising win at Memorial Marco Pantani Just two days after his impressive solo victory at the Coppa Sabatini, the Kazakh champion Alexey Lutsenko takes a surprising win in a dramatic final of the Memorial Marco Pantani. The Astana rider attacked from the bunch inside the last 2 km of racing and catching the 4-men breakaway with just 500 meters to go, he continue his powerful sprint until the finish line, taking his 10th victory in the current season! - The start of the race was quite intense as it took some time before the breakaway finally went away. They have got a good gap of 6-7 minutes, while some teams decided to chase them back. We stayed safety in the peloton, preferring to wait until the local laps. I want to thank all team for supporting me today, especially Zhandos Bizhigitov, who was always next to me, keeping me on a perfect position in front of the pack. With many good sprinters in the bunch, honestly, I did not plan to do something in the final as usually I am not a contender in sprint. But our sports director Giuseppe Martinelli advised me to try to attack with 2 km to go. He knows well the finish town and has a great experience, so I just decided to follow that advice. I attacked exactly where Martinelli told me and quickly took a nice gap over the main group. With 500 meters to go I caught the guys from the breakaway and with 200 meters to go I launched my sprint for a win. Everything worked out perfectly! This victory is a bit surprising to me, but I am very happy with it. It is a nice race in honor of a great champion Marco Pantani. I know how this race is important for Giuseppe Martinelli and I am super happy to bring this win to him! – said Alexey Lutsenko. - Everyone knows what Marco Pantani means for me, so today I am so happy and proud with our team and with Alexey Lutsenko, who did a fantastic race and took so beautiful victory! We are spending an amazing week here in Italy, tomorrow we will close it with another nice race Trofeo Matteotti, while after it our riders will leave for the World Championships in Yorkshire, - added Giuseppe Martinelli, sports director of Astana Pro Team. The daily podium has been completed by two riders from an early breakaway: Diego Rosa (2nd place) and Guillaume Martin (3rd place). With today’s victory of Alexey Lutsenko at the Memorial Marco Pantani, Astana Pro Team breaks its all-time record, scoring 36th win during a season. |
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