Rosa wins Coppi e Bartali

25 Mar 2018

Rosa wins Coppi e Bartali

Related riders

Diego Rosa put in a superb ride in the final stage time trial to clinch overall victory at Settimana Coppi e Bartali.

Despite not being a TT specialist by his own admission, the Italian clocked the second quickest time across the 12.5-kilometre course, pushing his overall winning margin out to 20 seconds.
 
Success in Italy marked Rosa’s first victory in Team Sky colours, and brought to an end a great week which saw the team collect a further two stage victories.
 
The foundations for success were laid with a winning team time trial on Thursday, with Rosa taking second on the subsequent queen stage, before finishing it off in style in Montegibbio.
 
Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) put in the fifth best time on the day but it wasn’t enough to overhaul Rosa, while Richard Carapaz (Movistar) rounded out the podium places.
 
Pavel Sivakov set the seventh best time out on course and that was enough to elevated the young Russian into a fantastic fourth place overall and the young rider jersey – an encouraging result in his first race with Team Sky.

Jon Dibben also set a solid early benchmark and his time held up for 11th quickest.

After the race Rosa described the feeling of victory, and was full of praise for the team effort. He told TeamSky.com: "The team believed in me and I really focused on the race. It is so nice when you can come back with a result.

"I know I am not a specialist but I worked hard this winter on the TT bike and today it went perfect. It wasn't a normal TT as there was a really hard climb in the final. So it wasn't really for the pure TT guys, which was lucky for me.

"It's been an unbelievable race from the team, especially because it's a young group. Everybody believed that I could do a good GC and I really did not want to let anyone down. I did not want to let the jersey go. On the queen stage the guys were at the front pulling full gas to split the bunch, and yesterday in the wind it was the same. After all the work Lawless could still win the stage too which was unbelievable."

On finally taking his first win for Team Sky, he added: "I waited a long time for this moment. Now we need to come back and do it again! It's nice too because it's early in the season and for the morale it is really good."
Diego Rosa

Diego Rosa

"It's been an unbelievable race from the team, especially because it's a young group.
"It's a really nice day for Diego and the team - it's a fantastic result," said Sport Director Matteo Tosatto after the race.

"Ahead of the time trial we knew there were only seven seconds back to Mollema who is a strong guy. But Diego put in a super performance - it's really fantastic for him. But also Pavel too. He won the young rider jersey and fourth overall is really good. Jonathan did a good TT today too. 

"It's been a nice week with the guys. Yesterday we got the victory with Chris and his first win as a professional, and also the TTT on Thursday.

"It's a great race for the younger riders. It's a difficult test, with tough climbs, and even on the flat day we've seen a lot of wind. All six guys stayed in the first group yesterday to support Diego. Every day they worked together to the same objective and with a great spirit."
Stage four result:

1. Jan Tratnik (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) 19:23
2. Diego Rosa (Team Sky) +27"
3. Victor De La Parte (Movistar) +31"
4. Koen Bouwman (LottoNL-Jumbo) +40"
5. Bauke Mollema (Trek Segafredo) +41"
7. Pavel Sivakov (Team Sky) +45"

Overall standings:

1. Diego Rosa (Team Sky) 10:12:36
2. Bauke Mollema (Trek Segafredo) +20"
3. Richard Carapaz (Movistar) +1:02"
4. Pavel Sivakov (Team Sky) +1:44"
5. Koen Bouwman (LottoNL-Jumbo) s.t.