Wed, Mar 21, 2007 page18

• Sunderland hoping for Spring classics boost

  • AFP
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  Australian Scott Sunderland brought his rich and at times dramatic cycling career to an end just over two years ago.

  But in a few days Sunderland, now in his second year working as a manager with CSC, will be hoping 15 years racing among Europe's elite proves decisive once more for his riders in the big Spring classics.

  Milan-San Remo opens cycling's one-day race season with a bang this Sunday.

  

  Italian Matteo Bono of team Lampre celebrates as he wins the sixth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico cycling race in San Giacomo, Teramo, Abruzzo Region, central Italy, on Monday.

  PHOTO: EPA

  At nearly 300km long, it is crucial for anyone hoping to contend throughout a tough month of April.

  Sunderland never won the race known as La Primavera (the Spring), but that hasn't dimmed his passion for a six-hour epic.

  "Milan-San Remo is a beautiful race, and I'm not saying that because I had a good result one year," Sunderland said. "You're riding all day then it comes to a fever pitch excitement at the end. It comes in in a blurr, and it's over in a flash, especially the last kilometer."

  "But for racing the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, it's a very important lead-up race just as far as doing so many kilometers," he added.

  The closest Sunderland got to winning in San Remo was a fifth place in 1992.

  Now under the team directorship of former Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis, the 40-year-old Belgium-based Aussie is hoping to pass on another golden nugget, this time to Stuart O'Grady, in the coming weeks.

  Sunderland was in control last year when Swiss racer Fabian Cancellara won arguably the hardest classic of them all -- Paris-Roubaix.

  The race with the rather more ominous nickname of the `Hell of the North' is held three weeks after Milan-San Remo -- usually over 265km, 50km of which will be on treacherous cobblestones.

  O'Grady last won a one-day classic at the HEW Cyclassics in 2004.

  But the 33-year-old has twice finished in San Remo's top four (2004, 2005) and placed third in the Tour of Flanders in 2003. Now he is hoping Sunderland's presence, and knowledge of the tricky terrain in Belgium, will pay off.

  "I usually get decent results there kind of going `blind,'" O'Grady said after the sixth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race in Italy. "But it's great working with Scott, especially when it comes to the Belgian classics. He knows just about every road and cobble, so hopefully it will pay off for me."

  This season O'Grady has also been buoyed by his close fifth place in the Belgian semi-classic, Het Volk, won by Italian star Filippo Pozatto, last year's Milan-San Remo winner, and a fourth and fifth place respectively in Milan-Turin and the Tour of California.

  "I'm feeling better and better every day," he added. "The result at Het Volk gave me a huge psychological boost, especially after last year as I missed a lot of the classics through crashes."

  "I'm hoping to do well in Milan-San Remo, but I think I've got a better chance of a top result in the Tour of Flanders," he added.

  Held a week earlier than Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders has plenty of flat and steep cobbled sections, and winding, wind-battered back roads.

  Former world champion Tom Boonen, the Paris-Roubaix winner in 2005, has won the race known as the `Ronde' for the past two years.

  Sunderland, who cheated death when he was hit by his own team car in the 1998 Amstel Gold Race, would be among the first to say there are plenty of lessons to be learned from the 26-year-old one-day powerhouse, and others.

  "In Flanders you've got all the favorites from Paris-Roubaix, plus more," he said.

  Nevertheless, O'Grady remains defiant.

  "Boonen will obviously be the big favorite, but we we've got a strong team and will have several options in Flanders," he said. "We've been working hard this week in preparation for the classics, and the confidence and form are building well."
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