Manuel Belletti (Colnago CSF Inox) kicked to vic­tory in the 81.2km stage at Riccione that saw two crashes in the bunch in the final kilo­me­ters. It was the sec­ond vic­tory of the year for Belletti.

Andrea Grendene (Team Type 1 – sanofi-aventis) crossed the line sec­ond to give Colnago two spots on the winner’s podium for the morn­ing stage.

“The final lap there was an attack by FDJ that we chased down and then Liquigas attacked twice. The team worked hard and brought me up to the fin­ish on a very long and straight road into a head­wind. In the final 300 meters I moved left and came from behind Jure for the sprint, but the pack moved left into me and I was sec­ond,” Grendene said. “It was great work on a short and tech­ni­cal course.”

Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) rode his Colnago to yet another vic­tory in what’s been a spec­tac­u­lar start to the 2011 sea­son for the French champion.

Italian rider Alessandro Bazzana jumped out of the main pack and held a promis­ing gap with just three kilo­me­tres to go. He was ulti­mately reeled in and a bunch sprint took the flow­ers, but the team’s aggres­sive atti­tude should pay div­i­dends as they open a series of races in Europe.

“There was a big fight for posi­tion­ing at the front, because there was a big head­wind. I knew I didn’t have a chance to win the race on the sprint, so I shot out to attack the front on a false flat,” Bazzana said. “I waited for some­body to come with me, but the pelo­ton held its breath and caught me. It was a good try, and a good effort after 200km, which is def­i­nitely a good feel­ing for the next race.”

Four of the eight start­ing rid­ers for Team Type 1 have type-1 dia­betes, a sig­na­ture of one of the most unique teams in cycling.

“We are excep­tion­ally proud to bring our mis­sion at Team Type 1 - sanofi-aventis to Belgium, where we know the qual­ity of rac­ing is among the best in the world,” said team CEO and founder Phil Southerland. “From the sad­dles of our Colnagos we can show that dia­betes is no limit to an active life, and with man­age­ment, the right tech­nol­ogy and a healthy diet, the dis­ease can be con­trolled and dreams can be achieved.”

The French national cham­pion attacked out of a break­away in the 124km stage and then surged away for good on the treach­er­ous Col d’Eze descent to claim the flow­ers on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice to close out a bril­liant “Race to the Sun.”

“It’s a great over­all result. I did not make any plans. Only in the finale did I tell myself I could do it. I really took a lot of risks in the descents. I thought I was too old for such risks, but I’ve still got it,” Voeckler said. “Two stage vic­to­ries is super. I was not very lucky on Paris-Nice in recent years but this time I had good legs and it helps. I pre­fer to win two stages than fin­ish­ing 10th or 11th. That’s the swash­buck­ling cycling I love, it’s fun. Everybody deserves plau­dits in such dif­fi­cult con­di­tions but I guess I deserve a lit­tle more for win­ning here.”

Voeckler became the first Frenchman to win two stages at Paris-Nice since Laurent Jalabert did it 1997.

Europcar’s Voeckler won out of a four-man break­away just as the main pack was breath­ing down their neck at 13sec back in the hard-fought, seven-climb stage across Beaujolais’s wine country.

Voeckler also slots into sec­ond over­all at 10sec behind going into the deci­sive sec­ond half of the eight-day “Race to the Sun,” but admits he has few designs on the over­all and instead takes immense plea­sure on claim­ing his first Paris-Nice stage in his career.

“I had been wait­ing for this since 2003. I was sec­ond twice in the past years and I tried again yes­ter­day. It was close, but it was good enough,” Voeckler said after the stage. “With the time trial on Friday, I don’t have the slight­est chance to win Paris-Nice. I’m already happy to have won a stage for the team. I will try to win another one. Our week is already good.”

The vic­tory is the third for Voeckler on the 2011 season.

Colnago-CSF Inox received the good news March 7 when Giro offi­cials wel­comed the team back for another run at the corsa rosa in what will be team’s sec­ond con­sec­u­tive Giro start.

In its Giro debut last year, Manuel Belletti won a stage and the squad livened up the race with a string of dar­ing attacks and solid, top-10 stage results.
Giro offi­cials got the green light to expand the num­ber of rid­ers start­ing this year’s race, which will cel­e­brate the 150th anniver­sary of the uni­fi­ca­tion of Italy. That means the Giro will have one of the biggest fields in decades, with a total of 23 teams and 207 rid­ers set to start the Giro on May 7 in Torino with a team time trial.

The Slovenian rode into the select win­ning group in the hard-fought 190km run across the dusty gravel roads in the heart of Tuscany and just missed putting Colnago on the pres­ti­gious winner’s podium with fourth place.

“The last 15km I was watch­ing Cunego and Visconti, because I knew they were strong at the fin­ish,” Kocjan said. “Some other teams missed the break, and I knew they would chase hard, so it was the per­fect option to wait behind those guys for the sprint. The last climb into Siena was 300 meters uphill, and then a right turn. I’m very happy to be in such good com­pany, but I have never felt fatigue like that on a bicycle.”

Voeckler has already placed Colnago on the winner’s podium at Bèsseges and the Tour du Haut Var and hopes to win a stage at Paris-Nice as well as fight for a strong posi­tion in the over­all classification.

“I am sat­is­fied with the start of my sea­son. I’ve put in a lot of hard work, but I am still not in top con­di­tion. I think I can become even stronger,” the French national cham­pion said. “I am very moti­vated for Paris-Nice, but I am also real­is­tic. The time trial is a hand­i­cap against me. I don’t have a spe­cific stage in mind, but I’ve been twice sec­ond, so I would like to win one. It’s Paris-Nice, so it’s very wide open.”

Voeckler will later take aim at the Tour of Flanders, a race he says he admires: “I really love that race, but the only prob­lem is I don’t like the rain. It would be pre­ten­tious to say that I could try to win, because I’ve never really done well in this type of race, but I am very motivated.”

Jure Kocjan sprinted to sec­ond in the GP Insubrica on Feb. 26 in Italy while Martijn Verschoor also scored a sec­ond place in the final stage of the Cell C Tour of South Africa (Feb. 19-26), where William Dugan posted 11th over­all behind win­ner Kristian House.
Kocjan just missed the vic­tory at Insubrica when he opened up his sprint early to try to sur­prise the other sprint­ers, a tac­tic that nearly worked until Italy cham­pion Giovanni Visconti shot past.

“The last climb was almost 700 meters long, but there was a break­away until the final kilo­me­ter. I was stay­ing behind Liquigas because I knew they would work for their sprinter,” Kocjan said. “They caught the escape and then did the work in the last 500 meters. I waited until about 250 meters to go and jumped to sur­prise the oth­ers. I’m happy with the fin­ish, but my legs were empty with 50 meters to go and Visconti passed me.”

Kocjan fol­lowed that up with fourth at the GP di Lugano on Feb. 27, giv­ing him seven top-10 fin­ishes so far in the first month of rac­ing in 2011.

In South Africa, Team Type 1 was active through­out the eight-day race that saw the return of the pop­u­lar tour fol­low­ing a decade-long absence.

In addi­tion to sec­ond in the final stage, Verschoor was fifth in the open­ing stage while Dugan ran eighth. Dugan posted 10th in stage four and nearly scored a top-10 over­all with 11th. Fabio Calabria also rode well in GC, set­tling in at 20th over­all.
Both Verschoor and Calabria race with Type-1 dia­betes, two of six rid­ers on the team who com­pete at the top inter­na­tional level with the condition.

“The dia­betes com­mu­nity of South Africa has come out to sup­port us every day at this race, and to give them a podium on the final day in Cape Town is spe­cial for us because it marks the first time in the vic­tory cir­cle in 2011 for a dia­betic ath­lete on our team,” said CEO and team founder Phil Southerland. “Martijn has put in a lot of hard work for this, both on the bike and off, train­ing to race and study­ing to man­age his dia­betes. We’ll see him and the rest of the squad up on the vic­tory steps more often this year, and for that we thank our part­ners at sanofi-aventis in help­ing us to achieve our dreams.”

Team Type 1 lines up next at the Giro del Friuli in Italy on March 3.

Sébastien Chavanel snuck into the main break­away at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Feb. 26, but a ner­vous pelo­ton, rac­ing with­out radio head­sets, ramped up the chase when the gap opened up to eight min­utes. The move was neu­tral­ized with 55km to go, and Sebastién Turgot was best-placed in 31st.

Thomas Voeckler was on the march the fol­low­ing day at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, work­ing into a promis­ing, nine-man break­away. Once again, the other teams col­lab­o­rated to neu­tral­ize the move with 25km to go. Chavanel put down an excel­lent sprint to cross the line sixth, his best result so far in 2011.

At the Tour of South Africa (Feb. 19-26), Europcar did well to make up for the absence of injured team leader Anthony Charteau, who dis­lo­cated his col­lar­bone in a fall on the first day. Yohan Gène won stage 3 and Perrig Quemeneur just missed the podium with fourth place overall.

“Things started off badly when we lost our leader (Charteau), but we responded by win­ning a vic­tory, many places of hon­our and a fourth-place over­all. The bal­ance is excel­lent,” said team man­ager Jean-Rene Bernaudeau. “Perrig is gain­ing con­fi­dence and this con­firms his very good Tour of Langkawi. He has a higher level than last year and we will hear more from him soon.”