LECCO, Italy, Oct 15, 2011 – Unheralded Swiss Oliver Zaugg of Team
Leopard stunned a host of favorites to claim the biggest win of his career at
the season-ending classic, the Tour of Lombardy on Saturday.

Ireland’s Dan Martin, of Garmin-Cervelo, finished second, with Spaniard
Joaquin Rodriguez of Team Katusha in third place, eight seconds in arrears
after 6hr 20min of racing.

Until what was his first professional win, Zaugg, who finished 11th overall
in the 2008 Tour of Spain, had been largely considered a ‘domestique’, or team
helper.

But after Leopard team bosses nominated him and Danish teammate Jakob
Fuglsang, who finished fourth last year, as their road captains for the day
the 30-year-old seized his chance.

“I have always been a helper during my career,” said an ecstatic Zaugg.

“Ever since I started racing, my job has been to help my captains. The team
believed that my condition was good, and they gave me a chance today.

“They designated Jakob (Fuglsang) and me as captains together. I am
incredibly grateful that the team gave me a shot in a race like Lombardy.”

Belgian Philippe Gilbert, the winner the past two seasons, was one of
several favorites for the ‘Race of the Falling Leaves’ who struggled to keep
pace in a tough finale where Zaugg made all the difference.

The Omega-Pharma rider eventually finished in eighth, being pipped to the
line by Italian champion Giovanni Visconti.

“What can I say? The result was logical and, as expected, it came down to
the last climb,” said Gilbert, who has won five of the season’s 13 classics
but admitted he was on his limit.

“I was bordering on cramping up.”

Italian Vincenzo Nibali, the 2010 Tour of Spain champion, had come into
this year’s race determined to make amends for crashing out last year, when
Gilbert tamed wet and windy conditions to claim his second consecutive win.

The Liquigas rider first put his intentions on display with an acceleration
early on the Madonna del Ghisallo climb, which caused a first selection in the
peloton.

He crested the summit, 53km from the finish, with a lead of 1min 20sec lead
on Gilbert and Fuglsang.

But once back on flat terrain around the shores of Lake Como, climbing
specialist Nibali struggled to ward off a 34-man peloton being driven mainly
by Team Sky, with Australian Michael Rogers leading the chase on the way to
the day’s final climb at Villa Vergano.

Nibali was caught 16.5 km from the finish, where he trailed home over seven
minutes off the pace, and left lamenting changes to this year’s course.

“When I had a gap of 1:40 I really thought I could win. I gave it
everything, but the road from the Ghisallo to the next climb was too flat for
my liking,” he said.

It was on the steep pitches towards the summit that Zaugg pulled ahead to
leave a dwindling group of frontrunners in his wake, coming over the summit
with a 15sec lead.

On the 9km stretch to the finish in Lecco, two chase groups got organized
behind him, but they ultimately failed to reel the Swiss in.

“It worked out very well,” added Zaugg. “My hope had been that I would
attack solo and hold off the others all the way to the finish.

“I don’t have a sprint. I’m not a big guy. What I did was the only scenario
in which I could win the race. The way things played out was exactly what I
had planned.”

He becomes the fourth Swiss to win the race — one of cycling’s five
classic ‘monuments’ with Milan-SanRemo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix
and Liege-Bastogne-Liege — and the first since Oscar Camenzind in 1998.

Zaugg’s victory also gave Team Leopard, for whom countryman Fabian
Cancellara failed to fire in the cobbled spring classics, a first major
classics win of the season.

1. Oliver Zaugg (SUI/LEO) 6hr 20min 02sec, 2. Daniel Martin (IRL/GRM) at
08sec, 3. Joaquin Rodriguez (ESP/KAT) same time, 4. Ivan Basso (ITA/LIQ) s.t.,
5. Przemyslaw Niemec (POL/LAM) s.t., 6. Domenico Pozzovivo (ITA/COG) s.t., 7.
Giovanni Visconti (ITA/FAR) 16, 8. Philippe Gilbert (BEL/OLO) s.t., 9. Carlos
Betancur (COL/ASA) s.t., 10. Riccardo Chiarini (ITA/KAT) s.t., 11. Luca
Paolini (ITA/KAT) 27, 12. Greg Van Avermaet (BEL/BMC) s.t., 13. Dario Cataldo
(ITA/QST) s.t., 14. Peter Stetina (USA/GRM) s.t., 15. Igor Anton (ESP/EUS)
s.t., 16. Nicolas Roche (IRL/ALM) s.t., 17. Daniel Moreno (ESP/KAT) s.t., 18.
Remi Pauriol (FRA/FDJ) s.t., 19. Rigoberto Uran (COL/SKY) s.t., 20. Thomas
Lovkvist (SWE/SKY) s.t.
Selected: 24. Marco Marcato (ITA/VAC) 1min 11sec, 25. Rui Costa (POR/MOV)
s.t., 27. Damiano Cunego (ITA/LAM) 1:15, 30. Samuel Sanchez (ESP/EUS) s.t.,
32. Janez Brajkovic (SLO/RSH) s.t., 39. Jakob Fuglsang (DEN/LEO) 7:14, 40.
Vincenzo Nibali (ITA/LIQ) s.t., 61. Nick Nuyens (BEL/SAX) 15:34