News | Bruxelles Cycling Classic | Memorial Pantani • August 30, 2020
Podium for Riabushenko at Memorial Marco Pantani, Philipsen 5th in Brussels
Double top-5 as dream weekend continues for Emirati squad
Aleksander Riabushenko sprinted his way to third in the bunch gallop at the Memorial Marco Pantani (1.1), which was won by Fabio Felline (Astana). The route from Castrocaro Terme e Terra del Sole to Cesenatico (199.8k) finished in a reduced group of 35 riders on a hilly finishing circuit, after a day animated by a breakaway featuring Alessandro Covi.
Sports Director Marco Marzano was pleased with his teams performance overall: “After the win yesterday with Conti we are happy with another nice podium result for the team . Young Alessandro Covi did a very good race and was strong in the final hilly circuit and animated the race along with Mosca. The plan was to sprint with Molano or Bystrom but the climb on the final circuit proved that bit too selective for them. We had Riabushenko as a back-up for the sprint and he showed a great turn of speed to grab the podium place. Conti had a crash on one of the descents and changed bikes which cost him energy which is why he didn’t feature in the late attacks. Overall it has been a good day and a perfect weekend of racing for the team.”
Meanwhile, Jasper Philipsen sprinted to 5th place on home soil at the Brussels Cycling Classic (1.Pro). The 183km race in the Belgian capital was won by Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Fenix) who outsprinted Nacer Bouhanni (Arkea-Samsic) on the line with the Frenchman crashing on the wet asphalt just after the finish.
In a race that was marked by bad weather, the 6 man break gained a maximum margin of four minutes before several teams behind, including UAE, organised themselves to keep the situation under control.
These results add to a weekend marked by victories for Alexander Kristoff on stage 1 at the Tour de France and Valerio Conti taking the win at the Trofeo Matteotti.
Memorial Marco Pantani Results:
1. Fabio Felline (Astana)
2. Ethan Hayter (Ineos)
3. Aleksandr Riabushenko (UAE Team Emirates)
Brussels Cycling Classic Results:
1.Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Fenix) 4:48:39
2.Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck-QuickStep) “
3.Nacer Bouhanni (Arkea-Samsic) “
5. Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates) ”
