Tour of Lombardy 2009
| Result | ||
|---|---|---|
| winner |
 Philippe Gilbert
|
5:43:45 h |
| Second |
 Samuel Sánchez
|
equal time |
| Third |
 Alexander Kolobnew
|
+ 0:07 min |
| Fourth |
 Luca Paolini
|
+ 0:08 min |
| fifth |
 Johnny Hoogerland
|
equal time |
| Sixth |
Robert Gesink
|
equal time |
| seventh |
 Alexander Vinokurov
|
equal time |
| Eighth |
 Daniel Martin
|
equal time |
| Ninth |
Juan José Cobo
|
equal time |
| Tenth |
 Cadel Evans
|
equal time |
The 2009 Tour of Lombardy Cycle Race was the 103rd edition of the Tour of Lombardy . The event took place on October 17th, 2009 and marked the end of the UCI ProTour season . The Belgian Philippe Gilbert and the Spaniard Samuel Sánchez pulled away 6 km from the finish and won the race in the final sprint. Third place went to Russian Alexander Kolobnew , who won the sprint of the chasing group.
Route
The route began in Varese, the venue for the 2008 World Road Championships, and ran for 150 miles to Como . A large loop was driven around Lake Como .
Several climbs were on the program. After just 56 kilometers, it went to Intelvi at an altitude of 779 meters. After 198 kilometers, the Madonna del Ghisallo followed at an altitude of 754 meters . 16 kilometers before the finish line was the climb to Civiglio, which has a maximum gradient of 11 percent over a length of 2.8 kilometers. 6 kilometers before the finish, the decisive climb to San Fermo della Bataglia was overcome, which stretched over three kilometers with a maximum gradient of 10 percent.
Field of participants
The teams
A total of 24 teams competed. These included all 18 UCI ProTeams : ag2r La Mondiale , Astana , Bbox Bouygues Télécom , Caisse d'Epargne , Columbia-HTC , Cofidis , Euskaltel-Euskadi , Française des Jeux , Fuji-Servetto , Garmin-Slipstream , Katjuscha , Lampre-NGC , Liquigas , Milram , Quick Step , Rabobank , Saxo Bank and Silence-Lotto . The professional Continental teams Acqua & Sapone-Caffè Mokambo , Cervélo , ISD-Neri , Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli , Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator and Vacansoleil received a wildcard .
Favorites
Defending champions Damiano Cunego and Philippe Gilbert were among the top favorites . The extended circle of favorites included Gilbert's team-mate and world champion Cadel Evans , Robert Gesink , Joaquim Rodríguez , Samuel Sánchez , Alexander Winokurow , Fabian Wegmann , Alexander Kolobnew , Ivan Basso , Alessandro Ballan , Giovanni Visconti and Filippo Pozzato , who had to cancel his participation due to a fever.
Race course
For a long time, the race was determined by a breakaway group around Marco Velo , Nicolas Roche , Sergei Klimow and Reinier Honig . Their maximum lead was eight minutes. On the ascent to Madonna del Ghisallo , the group was set by Johnny Hoogerland , who attacked from the peloton. In the downhill, Matteo Carrara , Mauro Santambrogio , Dries Devenyns , Gustav Larsson and Daniel Martin caught up with him and formed a new leading group.
After the Rabobank team had initially organized the pursuit work, the decisive step up the pace on the climb to Civiglio by the world champion Cadel Evans with an attack from the main field. After the top group was caught up in the downhill again, Alexander Vinokurow, Jakob Fuglsang and again Santambrogio pulled away from the field. On the last climb to San Fermo della Bataglia , Damiano Cunego led the chasing group back to the breakaway, so that for a short time a closed group of around 25 riders with almost all of the favorites was created.
Exactly at the 6 km mark - a few hundred meters before the end of the ascent of San Fermo della Battaglia - Philippe Gilbert launched the decisive attack. Only Samuel Sánchez could follow him. The top duo had a lead of up to fourteen seconds on the pursuers. On the home stretch, Gilbert finally beat Sánchez in the final sprint and achieved his fourth win within 10 days. Alexander Kolobnew won the sprint of the chasing group and secured third place.