Beppe's simple plan succeeds
Giuseppe Guerini's victory in the 19th stage of the Tour de France was another one for the gregarios, the hard workers that are so essential to every team. After doing the job for his leader Jan Ullrich in the mountains, Guerini was given his own chance to get into the break today, and he took it by the horns. Cyclingnews' Hedwig Kröner reports from Le-Puy-en-Velay.
The final move which gave Giuseppe 'Beppe' Guerini (T-Mobile) his second stage win in the Tour de France, and an Italian's 250th victory at the Tour de France, was an expected one. In the breakaway, that still led by 2'20 minutes on the next group of chasers, everyone knew that the lean Italian climber would attack before the finish so as to not risk getting outsprinted by any of his three breakaway companions - namely Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux), Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas-Bianchi) and Oscar Pereiro (Phonak). And the plot worked out perfectly for the man from Bergamo (the same Italian region that brought Felice Gimondi to cycling): He attacked just before the famous flamme rouge, and the other three played poker just long enough for him to get a 10 second lead on the line.
"I've been trying to get into breakaways for some time now - today I finally succeeded," Guerini said after the stage. "During the race, I felt a little tired, but my legs were good. It was a great break. When we got to the last kilometres, I knew that Casar would beat me in the sprint, so I had to leave before the finale. Pereiro was there mainly for the General Classification, so I knew it was between Casar, Pellizotti and me. When I left, they looked at each other just a little bit too long!"
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