Saunier Duval-Prodir's Luciano Pagliarini has dedicated his Stage 5 victory at the Eneco Tour to his daughter, who he's only seen for an hour in her whole life, and wife. The Brazilian professional's wife gave birth to their daughter, Aurora, 10 days ago, but due to Pagliarini's racing schedule he's only had the chance to spend an hour with Aurora on the day she was born.
"Because I had to ride Hamburg and the Eneco Tour, I´ve only been able to see my daughter Aurora for one hour after she was born ten days ago," he explained. "So this victory is for her and for my wife, of course. They gave me strength after a hard season with many difficulties of all kinds."
Victory on the stage from Terneuzen - Nieuwegein in the Netherlands was Pagliarini's first big result of the season. The little known 29 year-old, who has dubbed this his most beautiful victory, started out as a stagiaire in 2000 with Lampre - Daikin.
"This is undoubtedly my most beautiful win, and my first in the ProTour," he said. "I felt very good in the first week, but was not able to succeed in the previous three mass sprints. For that reason, I carefully studied the final today and chose a large gear. The sprint went perfectly, and I am very happy that I won it."
Until now all of Pagliarini victories had been with Lampre, where he rode for four years until switching to Liquigas in 2005 and Saunier Duval in 2006. Pagliarini's victories include five stage wins in Malaysia's Tour de Langkawi, three in 2003 and two in 2004, as well as victory at the Clasica de Almeria in 2003 and Stage 5 at the Vuelta a Murcia in 2004.
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