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O’Grady Opens Classics Season with 5th at Milan-San Remo
Stuart O'Grady, second from left, finishes fifth overall.
Team CSC’s Stuart O’Grady sprinted to an impressive fifth place at the 98th edition of Milan-San Remo to open the spring classics season Saturday on a positive note.
Three-time world champion Oscar Freire shot to victory in the intense finishing sprint in the longest one-day race of the season at 294 kilometers from Italy’s fashion capital to the posh Italian Riviera.
O’Grady stayed with the favorites over two chaotic climbs at the Cipressa and Poggio hills in the final 30 kilometers to play his cards in the high-speed dash to the line, but was outgunned by the pure sprinters.
“We managed to deliver Stuart as planned and he was clearly strong, so it was too bad that he didn’t make it all the way to the top,” said Team CSC sport director Scott Sunderland.
The result was the best-ever finish for Team CSC in “La Classicissima” and saw a strong performance by the entire squad in the demanding, high-speed race. Fränk Schleck was at the front in the final climbs, but strong winds kept the bunch together for the final bunch sprint.
Team CSC avoided trouble on a day that saw scores of riders go down in costly crashes and spills. The German Gerolsteiner team saw seven of its eight starters crash and two ended up in the hospital with broken bones.
For O’Grady, yet another strong performance underscores what’s been a very good opening two months for the veteran Aussie. Saturday marked the eighth top-five result of the 2007 season for O’Grady, who is due for a big victory anytime soon.
“Once again [O’Grady] showed that he is in great shape at the moment and hopefully soon he’ll find himself in the front group in a race which isn’t decided in a bunch sprint,” Sunderland continued. “He’ll definitely be one of the main contenders in some of the upcoming races judging by his current form.”
O’Grady will get plenty of chances as the racing calendar will be chock full of events tailored to his strengths.
Upcoming races for Team CSC:
Vuelta a Castilla y León, Spain – March 26-30
GP Waregem, Belgium – March 28
E3 Prijs Vlaanderen, Belgium – March 31
Criterium International, France – March 31-April 1
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