It Is The End Of The Rainbow For A Smiling Paolo Bettini
by Justin Davis
VARESE, Italy, Sept 29, 2008 (AFP) - Handing his coveted world title to
countryman Alessandro Ballan was the second-best send-off Italian great Paolo
Bettini could have wished for, he admitted here Sunday.
The only thing better would have been to keeping the rainbow jersey he won
in 2006 and 2007, thus becoming only the fifth rider in history to win the
world title three times.
Ballan, a tall and lanky 28-year-old who won last year’s Tour of Flanders,
succeeded the diminutive Bettini as the new world champion after a thrilling
260.2km race which proved to be the 34-year-old Bettini’s swansong.
It left hosts Italy with more than one reason to feel emotional, but
Bettini - who announced his retirement a day prior to his final race - was
confident he was leaving the jersey in good hands.
“I feared last night that announcing my retirement would have shook the
team up a bit. But that wasn’t the case,” said Bettini, who finished 28th
after giving up the chase of a leading group of riders during the final laps.
Riding home in the company of some of the men who have been his fiercest
rivals of the past decade, Bettini admitted it had been an emotional day in
more ways than one.
“In the last few kilometres I was really touched by what some of my rivals
were saying to me, especially (Spanish rival) Alejandro Valverde,” he added.
“If I’d won it would have been sublime, but I’m leaving the rainbow jersey
in good hands. I tried to escape a few times today, but too many riders just
kept following me wheel.”
Bettini, who won the 2004 Olympic crown only to hand that title to Spaniard
Samuel Sanchez in Beijing, is one of the most decorated one-day riders of the
past decade.
But he was no alone in lighting up the competition this week, nor the last
to decide it was time to call it a day.
While some riders, such as under-23 men’s champion Fabio Andres Duarte of
Colombia are hoping to get their career off the ground, others are winding it
down.
German sprinter Erik Zabel, a former six-time winner of the Tour de
France’s green jersey for the points competition, also announced it would be
his final world championships race.
He will retire at the end of the season.
“I’ve had a lot of fun this season and managed to keep my main rivals on
their toes. But I don’t know if I can do it for another season, so I think
it’s the right time to stop,” Zabel said.
Zabel, a 12-stage winner at the Tour de France and four-time winner of
Milan-San Remo, will compete for the last time in Munster, Germany on October
3.
In the women’s competition Britain’s Nicole Cooke, who triumphed in Beijing,
finally grabbed world road race gold after years of picking up podium places.
After a thrilling finish to the 138.8 km race, held over eight laps of an
undulating circuit, Cooke showed why she is one of the greatest women cyclists
of modern times by beating Dutch rival Marianne Vos at the finish line.
“I think it will take a long time for this achievement to sink in,” said
Cooke, the first woman to win a world and Olympic road race title in the same
year.
“After achieving my main objective of the season in Beijing we started the
race very relaxed and today I just tried to do my best.
“At the end of the race I decided I would give everything I had all the way
to the finish line, and that’s exactly what I did.”
Categories: Features, Rider Shuffle, World Road Championships
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