The Trofeo Melinda always lives up to the expectations: it was supposed to be the edition of young riders, and that’s what happened. Carlos Alberto Betancur Gomez used strong acceleration for an impressive win in Fondo, ahead of homefans favorite Moreno Moser. No doubt this is a victory for cycling as a whole: the top-2 riders hardly make 45 years as a pair (Betancur is almost 23, Moser almost 22), and that’s incredibly good news coming from this classic race of Trentino. An outsider, Sicilian Giampaolo Caruso, rounded out the podium.
Trofeo Melinda is a race suited for very strong riders. Betancur is still early in his career, but his progression has been impressive. The “young” Moser (Francesco’s nephew) started with his third pro win in mind, after this year’s Laigueglia and GP Frankfurt. Today was an assertion of his value as a rider. Moser was a favorite for this race, and he showed no fear of pressure.
It was a great finale for a very entertaining race, that featured several brave attacks. One was by Emanuele Sella, solo leader of the race for over 40 km. Then came two bursts by Alessandro Bertolini, before Paolo Bailetti lit up the race with 5 km to go. There was no rest from then on: Leonardo Bertagnolli (another home rider) and Sicilian Giampaolo Caruso went on the break, and it seemed like they could be gone for good. But when the young riders’ “fury” got back from behind, that meant game over for everyone else.
Moser relied on a very active Liquigas-Cannondale team along with Lampre-ISD. Moreno lacked freshness in the finale and he couldn’t fight the Colombian’s acceleration. “After a high-altitude training camp, I actually missed something in the finale” Moreno confessed.
Betancur was very dangerous, and everybody knew that: “Melinda’s route suits me – the Colombian explained – it is pretty similar to the profiles we find in my home country races. I had already taken two second places at the Giro del Trentino, now this win comes just days after last Sunday’s success in Belgium. I could feel my Team’s trust, and today I hope to have moved closer to the Olympics. In the future, I hope to play a part in grand tours.”
It was a high-quality classification for 21st Trofeo Melinda: Rebellin was fourth ahead of Pellizotti, fifth in his Italian comeback race, while Pozzovivo, Brambilla and Niemec also finished into the top 10.
