Sunday Roundup

While everyone (okay, maybe not everyone...) was watching Liege-Bastogne-Liege, lots of racing was happening elsewhere, including in Belgium and Europe and many other places.

Zordan denies Villella again in Memorial Angelo Fumagalli

In a rivarly that is getting downright comical, Andrea Zordan once again topped Davide Villella in the final sprint in the Memorial Angelo Fumagalli in Castelllo di Brianza, Lombardia. When I say comical, I don't mean it in a mocking sense (okay, maybe a little because this was Villella's victory salute from last year) but after Villella won 11 times last season, he has been denied his first win of the year four times in the past 12 days, three times by Zordan and once by Zordan's Zalf teammate Simone Andreetta, at yesterday's Memorial Gerry Gasparotto.

Zordan and Villella were going head to head with each other and seemingly left others in their wake as they attacked on the final climb together and continued down the downhill, where the remainder of the pack soon joined them. Zordan launched his sprint and was once again to strong for Milanese rider Villella and Davide Pacchiardo (Cerone-Rodman), who got his 1st podium of the year.

Zordan is up to an impressive 5 wins so far this season and his Zalf team is now up to 12 wins on the year. Both Zordan and Villella will be targeting next weekend's GP Liberazione, one of the crown jewels of Italian amateur cycling. 

Zmorka solos to victory at Vicenza-Bionde

Ukranian Marlen Zmorka (Palazzago) rode to an impressive solo victory at the 69th edition of Vicenza-Bionde, becoming only the 2nd foreign rider to win the race after Brazilian Luciano Pagliarini. Zmorka was apart of a breakaway group of 22 that went away halfway through the race but with 40 kilometers to go, Zmorka set out on his own. 6th place in last year's world U23 TT, Zmorka increased his advantage over the chasing group and the peloton and heading into the final 10 kilometers, the Ukranian had a large 1'10" gap. The bunch, led by Zalf-Euromobil and Colpack, were desperate to bring things back but in the end, Zmorka was able to take a comfortable win. Nicolas Marini (Zalf-Euromobil) continued his team's trend of beating Colpark as he finished 2nd ahead of Colpack's Nicola Ruffoni 3rd and Niccolò Bonifazio (Viris-Maserati) 4th.

Zmorka will be in an attacking mood for Liberazione and will be looking to target TTs later in the season.

Groenewegen makes it two in a row for De Rijke-Shanks

Photo: Marcel Koch (kochproductions.nl)

Dylan Groenewegen made it two wins in two days for his De Rijke-Shanks squad at the Ronde van Noord-Holland as the Dutchman beat out Wouter Wippert (3M) and Remco te Brake (Metec) in a bunch gallop. It was a breakaway that defined the day as a large escape group went up the flat, windy roads as the peloton would eventually split behind them. It was with less than 10 kilometers that the first peloton brought back all of the escapees.

Mike Terpstra (3M) was burying himself for Wouter Wippert but the Drenthe native couldn't quite seal the deal as Groenewegen, from Amsterdam, powered to his first victory of the season. This victory mitigates the sour taste he had in his mouth after missing out on the victory at the Ronde van Vlaanderen Nations Cup, where he was blocked in the final sprint and had to settle for 2nd to Rick Zabel. 

In other races...

• Tao Geoghegan (Great Britain) won the Tour of Istria Nations Cup overall after finishing safely in the bunch on the 3rd stage, which saw Kristoffer Halvorsen (Norway) take the win in a big bunch sprint. David Per (Slovenia) finished 2nd overall with Dmitry Strakhov (Russia) in 3rd.
• Jérôme Baugnies (ToWin-Josan) won his 9th race of the year today at the GP Affligem kermis. Baugnies got into a group of 14 and sprinted to the win over Tommy Baeyens (Van Eyck Sports). That is the 4th win for Baugnies in the last 8 days and he is well on his quest to getting a pro contract for next season.
• Simon Yates (Great Britain) finally broke his spell of near-misses and won the final day of the Arden Challenge over Jasper Stuyven (Bontrager CT) and twin brother Adam Yates. Simon wrapped up the overall after finishing 3rd, 2nd, 2nd and 1st in the 4-race event. 
• Ibai Salas (Caja Rural Amateur) won the Copa de España sixth round at the Trofeo Guerrita in a mass sprint over Loïc Chetout (Naturgas Energia). With this result, Chetout retakes the overall lead in the series from Aira Fernandez (Coleur)

I'll add some video later on as it filters in.