Mountain is the element of Colombian riders. That’s why Colombia Coldeportes guys couldn’t wait for the 2^nd stage of the Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria, with the traditional Sant’Elia climb, peaking at around 45 km to go, to interrupt a pretty straightforward race plot. In the end, Liquigas’ Elia Viviani proved unbeatable once again in sprints, but Claudio Corti’s riders made a good show of their qualities on mountain slopes: a performance boding really well for the near future.

Rain was expecting the riders for the second stage of the event, 192 km from Lamezia Terme to Reggio Calabria. Five riders went on the attack in the early stages, their advantage peaking at 4.30 after 45 km, but they never looked too dangerous, with Liquigas holding the reins in the peloton to help race leader Elia Viviani.

With frontrunners nearing the first slopes of Sant’Elia climb, Jarlinson Pantano and Esteban Chaves  looked to enliven the race with a joint attack, immediately putting over a minute between themselves and the pack. The climb was not demanding enough to make a big difference, but the Colombian duo’s acceleration forced the pack to set the pace high, reducing its number to just over 10 riders – including Fabio Duarte, Jeffry Romero and Robinson Chalapud.

On the way down, Liquigas’ work succeeded in bringing everything back together, and no one could deny Viviani on his way to his 5^th win of the season. Daniele Colli (Team Type 1) was runner up again, with Maximilian Richeze in third (Nippo).

“The race was good, as we managed to follow our morning plans, – DS Valerio Tebaldi stated. “We knew the Sant’Elia was too far from home to make a big difference, but we wanted to play it hard and test our legs in such a race situation. All of our riders responded very well, so we are really satisfied with today’s performance.”

“Tomorrow we will restart working with our training schedules to set-up Tirreno-Adriatico, but I am confident we can do pretty things in between – next Saturday’s Trofeo Laigueglia could be a race to watch!”

Photo: Esteban Chavez smiling after the race

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