Van Avermaet wins Tirreno-Adriatico

Mar 15, 2016 – Belgian rider Greg Van Avermaet won the Tirreno-Adriatico cycling race after Tuesday’s final stage — a 10.1km time-trial at San Benedetto del Tronto which was dominated by Swiss Fabian Cancellara.

AFP/Yuzuru Sunada

BMC Racing’s Van Avermaet finished just one second ahead of Slovak Peter Sagan, riding for Tinkoff, in the overall standings. Starting last in the leader’s blue jersey, Van Avermaet lost time on Sagan early but following a gritty final kilometre he managed to save one second of his seven-second overnight lead.

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Luxembourg’s Bob Jungels, benefitted from the poor showing of Etixx team leader Zdenek Stybar to move up a place to overall third. Trek-Segafredo rider Cancellara set himself up as a favorite for Saturday’s Milan-San Remo along with Van Avermaet, Sagan and Stybar.

The Swiss crushed his rivals in the time-trial, clocking 11min 08sec, to finish 13sec ahead of France’s Johan Le Bon of the FDJ team with Germany’s Tony Martin (Etixx) third at 15sec. The “Race of the Two Seas” was hampered this year by poor weather with Sunday’s mountain stage scrapped because of the threat of snowfall. Frustrated by the cancellation of the stage to Monte San Vicino, climbers Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) nevertheless finished fifth and sixth respectively overall.

Final ITTs of Stage 7

Results Stage __:
1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Trek-Segafredo 0:11:08
2. Johan Le Bon (Fra) FDJ 0:00:13
3. Tony Martin (Ger) Etixx – Quick-Step 0:00:15
4. Alex Dowsett (GBr) Movistar Team
5. Thomas Leezer (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:00:16
6. Maciej Bodnar (Pol) Tinkoff Team 0:00:17
7. Alexandre Geniez (Fra) FDJ 0:00:18
8. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data 0:00:19
9. Vasil Kiryienka (Blr) Team Sky 0:00:20
10. Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing Team 0:00:22

General Classification:
1. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team 20:42:22
2. Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff Team 0:00:01
3. Bob Jungels (Lux) Etixx – Quick-Step 0:00:23
4. Sébastien Reichenbach (Swi) FDJ 0:00:24
5. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ
6. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:29
7. Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Etixx – Quick-Step 0:00:33
8. Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Team Sky 0:00:39
9. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:45
10. Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Tinkoff Team 0:00:48

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