Colnago rid­ers con­tin­ued their run of vic­to­ries with Sacha Modolo win­ning a high-speed sprint in Turkey, Thomas Voeckler impress­ing in Gabon and Aleksandr Serebryakov win­ning the stage five sprint in the Tour of Korea.

The Colnago-CSF Inox team cel­e­brated Andrea Di Corrado’s first ever pro­fes­sional vic­tory at the Tour of Turkey on Thursday and the cham­pagne corks were pop­ping again on Friday after Sacha Modolo won a high-speed sprint in Kusadasi. Teammate Enrico Battaglin made a late solo attack but when he was swept up, Modolo got the per­fect lead out from Marco Coledan and then charged to the line, dis­tanc­ing Australians Matt Goss and Mark Renshaw.

“This is a spe­cial win for me. I’ve been try­ing to land a win to boost my moral for the Giro d’Italia. I’ve finally done it. It was a hard stage but I stayed with the best rid­ers and I beat some big name rid­ers in the sprint. This win is ded­i­cated to the team who helped me so much and to my child who will be born in September,” Modolo said.

Voeckler stars in Gabon, Serebryakov in Korea

Thomas Voeckler of Team Europcar is the star of La Tropical Ammisa Bongo stage race being con­tested in Gabon, cen­tral Africa. He won stage three on Thursday and then fin­ished sec­ond on Friday’s fourth stage as he helped his team­mate Anthony Charteau take the over­all race lead.

In Korea, Aleksandr Serebryakov (Team Type 1 – Sanofi) won a sprint fin­ish with is Colnago M10 bike, to make up for being rel­e­gated in the stage three.

“The pres­sure was off psy­cho­log­i­cally because we feel like we actu­ally won the stage two days ago, before being rel­e­gated, and this was a chance for us to build on our con­fi­dence and win a lit­tle jus­tice for Team Type 1-Sanofi,” Serebryakov said.

All three rid­ers could secure more suc­cess in the remain­ing stages of the Tour or Turkey, La Tropical Ammisa Bongo and the Tour of Korea.

Colnago bikes were in the thick of the action dur­ing Liege-Bastogne-Liege thanks to an aggres­sive per­for­mance by Team Type 1 - Sanofi, Landbouwkrediet-Euphony and Team Europcar.

Reinier Honig (Landbouwkrediet-Euphony) and Alessandro Bazzana (Team Type 1 - Sanofi) were part of the six-rider break­away that dom­i­nated much of the hilly race. Riding their Colnago M10 bikes they helped the move open a 12-minute lead and stayed clear until close to the 200km point.

Rolland had rid­den the Giro del Trentino stage race just before Liege-Bastogne-Liege but went on the attack early, tak­ing a move up to the break­away on the Levée climb. He was rid­ing his spe­cial lime-green Colnago M10 and lead the race over the famous La Redoute climb. He was still rid­ing well when the big-name favourites came across to the group, includ­ing team leader Thomas Voeckler, who was strong despite a crash at the foot of the climb.

Vincenzo Nibali went on the attack alone in the finale but again Rolland tried to go across to him, while Voeckler saved his strength for the fin­ish in Liege. It proved to be the right tac­tic and while Maxim Iglinskiy went on to catch and beat Nibali, Voeckler was strong enough to fight out the sprint and fin­ished fourth.

It was a impres­sive end to Voeckler’s and Colnago’s spring clas­sic cam­paign: The ever-aggressive Frenchman fin­ished in the top ten three times in April: he was eighth at the Tour of Flanders, fifth at the Amstel Gold Race and then fourth at Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Few other rid­ers have such tal­ent and consistency.

Immediately after the race, Voeckler also flew to Africa for the Tropicale Amissa Bongo (the Tour of Gabon). The clas­sics may be over but the rac­ing and suc­cess for Colnago con­tin­ues. Next up in Europe is the Tour de Romandie and then the Giro d’Italia.

Colnago CSF Inox’s Domenico Pozzovivo was today crowned the over­all win­ner of the 2012 Giro del Trentino, fol­low­ing an epic final stage in freez­ing cold conditions.

Italian-born Pozzovivo fin­ished third at the end of the 4^th stage, close to the top of the 2239m high Passo Pordoi – com­pet­ing in heavy snow.

With the final stage start­ing from a Spring-like Castelletto Di Brenzone on Lake Garda, the 177.5km stage was won by Colombia-Coldeportes rider Darwin Atapuma, three sec­onds ahead of Acqua & Sapone’s Carlos Betancur, six sec­onds in front of third place Pozzovivo.

A nat­ural born climber, Pozzovivo rode his Colnago M10 through the 23 hair­pins of the final climb, con­trol­ling the race in heavy snow.  Attacking the last kilo­me­tre, Pozzovivo demon­strated why he was the over­all win­ner of the Giro del Trentino.

The final clas­si­fi­ca­tion of the Giro del Trentino saw the Colnago spon­sored Pozzovivo fin­ish­ing 40” ahead of Damiano Cunego and 1’04” in front of Sylvester Szymd.

Ahead of the final stage, Pozzovivo said win­ning “Would be the most beau­ti­ful vic­tory of my life,” and as the Giro d’Italia looms closer, Pozzovivo’s dom­i­na­tion of the Giro del Trentino high­lights the Colnago rider’s excit­ing dis­play of form.

Domenico Pozzovivo con­firmed he is one of the best pure climbers in pro­fes­sional cycling by con­quer­ing the ter­ri­ble Punta Veleno climb at the Giro del Trentino, win­ning the stage and tak­ing the over­all race lead.

Pozzovivo dis­tanced all his rivals on the painfully steep slopes of the Punta Veleno climb. He spun a small gear on his Colnago C59 Italia bike and con­tin­ued to gain time all the way to the fin­ish.  He fin­ished 23 ahead of Sylvester Szmyd and 1:12 ahead of Damiano Cunego. Pozzovivo now leads over­all, ahead of Cunego by 25 seconds.

It was a classy per­for­mance by the diminu­tive Italian climber as the Giro d’Italia approaches. Pozzovivo pulled on the leader’s ciclamino coloured jer­sey and also took con­trol of the climber’s green jersey.

“It’s an incred­i­ble climb. Fortunately it went well for me. I’m really happy,” Pozzovivo gasped just sec­onds after reach­ing the finish. “I man­aged to stay calm and in con­trol. The team con­trolled the race early on and then I attacked when I wanted to and I quickly got a gap. The climb was so hard that I had to use 34x29 and I only changed to 34x27 near the top.”

He and his Colnago CSF Inox team­mates now have to defend the race lead dur­ing Friday’s final stage to the sum­mit of the Passo Pordoi. Ideal ter­rain for such a strong pure climber as Pozzovivo.

“I hope to do well on the Pordoi. It’s not a dif­fi­cult climb and so the team will be impor­tant, espe­cially on the flat roads before the climb. There will be attacks but I’m on form and ready for a fight.”

Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar) showed he is a favourite for the upcom­ing Ardennes clas­sics with an emphatic solo vic­tory at the Brabantse Pijl race in Belgium.

Voeckler attacked alone, 30km from the fin­ish, danc­ing up the steep climbs on his spe­cial lime-green Colnago C59 Italia bike. He suf­fered as the rain soaked the race, show­ing the pain of his effort on his face but con­tin­ued to extend his lead all the way to the line. Spain’s Oscar Freire won the sprint for sec­ond place but was 1:11 behind Voeckler.

It was Voeckler’s first win of 2012 but came at the right time, just four days before the Amstel Gold Race in the Netherlands.

“I wanted to go well and this kind of course suits me,” Voeckler said before climb­ing onto the winner’s podium with his son. “I was fifth a few years ago. I knew the course and knew it was bet­ter to attack because most teams didn’t have a lot of rid­ers. I didn’t think I’d make it to the fin­ish alone, I thought some rid­ers would come up. But I raced hard to gain a minute’s lead, know­ing it would men­tally crack the other riders.”

Voeckler’s dom­i­nant per­for­mance in the first hilly Belgian race of the sea­son makes him a nat­ural favourite for Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race. Voeckler Modestly played down his chances but must have a great chance in the Netherlands.

“I just want to do well, I don’t know if I can win,” he said. “Winning Brabantse Pijl doesn’t auto­mat­i­cally mean I’ll do well in Amstel. But I’ve done well in the past at Amstel and so win­ning is a goal. For now I’m just happy to win my first race of the season.”

Sebastien Turgot (Team Europcar) became the first Frenchman to fin­ish on the Paris-Roubaix podium since 1997 and showed of the qual­i­ties of his Colnago Prestige bike on the pave with a deter­mined sec­ond place in Paris-Roubaix.

Turgot tried a lone attack before even­tual win­ner Tom Boonen took off and the Frenchman still had the legs to fight his way back into con­tention in the Roubaix velo­drome. He timed his sprint to per­fec­tion, com­ing over the top of his rivals to beat Alessandro Ballan by a just a cou­ple of mil­lime­tres in the sprint.

It was a great day for Team Europcar, with David Veilleux also in the long break­away that shaped much of the race and sur­vived the ter­ri­ble Forest of Arenberg sec­tor. When the race came back together, Turgot was there and rode an intel­li­gent race, let­ting his spe­cial Colnago Prestige bike dom­i­nate the cob­bles of north­ern France.

The Colnago Prestige frame is sim­i­lar to those used by cyclo-cross stars Sven Nys and cur­rent world cham­pion Niels Albert. It has excel­lent wheel clear­ance and can­tilever brakes but is lighter thanks to a spe­cial refined car­bon fibre design. The leg­endary Colnago C40 dom­i­nated the pave in the past; now the Colnago Prestige has proved again that it is per­fect for the pave.

“I never thought I’d pull of a result like that but my legs felt good,” Turgot said after proudly climb­ing onto the podium with Boonen and Ballan.

“I tried with 60km to go, to see how I was, and realised I could do some­thing. After that I rode intel­li­gently and made sure I was in the right posi­tion on the pave sec­tors.  When we were two or three kilo­me­tres from the fin­ish and close to catch­ing the trio, I told myself to give it every­thing and then try in the sprint. My rim was touch­ing the brakes but I told myself not to think about it and go all out to the line. It’s great to fin­ish on the podium behind Tom Boonen. It pays me and the Europcar team back for all the sac­ri­fices and hard work we’ve done.”

Team Europcar man­ager Jean-Rene Bernadeau described Turgot’s per­for­mance as historic.

“This is a huge result for Sebastien and the team. He’s got a real love for the clas­sics and this result pays him and the team back for all the work we’ve done. There are no secrets to our success.”

Colnago has again sup­plied Team Europcar with spe­cial bikes for Paris-Roubaix, to help the rid­ers han­dle the bat­ter­ing and blows of the leg­endary pave.

Four rid­ers from the French team will use cus­tom ver­sions of the Colnago Prestige bike devel­oped with the advice of cyclo-cross star Sven Nys and used by Niels Albert to win the 2012 world cyclo-cross title. This road ver­sion is lighter but has sim­i­lar wheel clear­ance and is fit­ted with can­tilever brakes.

Damien Gaudin used a sim­i­lar bike in the 2011 Paris-Roubaix, fin­ish­ing in the front group of big name favourites.

Other rid­ers at Team Europcar have opted for cus­tom ver­sions of the Colnago C59 for Paris-Roubaix. The frames have a longer wheel­base to boost com­fort and bike con­trol on the pave, while offer­ing high per­for­mance on the road.

Colnago bikes have shaped the his­tory of Paris-Roubaix by rev­o­lu­tion­is­ing the bike design for the world’s tough­est race. The iconic Colnago C40 frame Colnago won Paris-Roubaix five times in the nineties with the Mapei team: Franco Ballerini in 1995, Johan Museeuw in 1996, Ballerini again in 1998,  Andrea Tafi in 1999 and Museeuw again in 2000.

Before the cre­ation of the Colnago C40, rid­ers tried dif­fer­ent sus­pen­sion designs and rad­i­cal frame mate­ri­als. However the Colnago C40 frame com­bined with the Precisa straight forks was a far bet­ter solu­tion. Colnago proved that the right frame geom­e­try and a high qual­ity car­bon fibre frame design offered the per­fect per­for­mance on the pave.