Domestique saves the best till last

Oliver Zaugg wins Il Lombaria ©Graham Watson

Oct 16th, 11. Philippe Gilbert was the hot favourite to win the final World Tour race of 2011, but it was a first time winner that took today's Il Lombardie victory.

Leopard Trek's Oliver Zaugg won the last race of the 2011 World Tour - and in doing so earned his first ever professional victory.

After a brilliant season, and as the winner of the past two editions, Gilbert (Omega Pharma Lotto) was the favourite to win this hilly Italian race.

He didn't win, but he didn't need to win to secure his place as the #1 ranked World Tour rider for 2011.

Gilbert finished 8th, 16sec behind Zaugg.

It was the 30 year old's first win of the year, in fact it was his first ever professional victory in a career dominated by helping his Leopard Trek teammates to victory.

"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.

"I am incredibly grateful that the team gave me a shot in a race like Lombardy."

In contrast to Zaugg, Gilbert had already won 6 stages, 2 stage race titles, 9 one day titles and both Belgium Champion titles this season.  

Today, Gilbert joined the first high powered break which occured relatively early along the 241km route. After 150km, on the descent of the Colma di Sormano, the day's earlier break was caught and ten riders stole off the front. Along with Gilbert was Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) and Zaugg's teammate Jacob Fugslang.

"I was calm when Jakob went away," said Zaugg. "I knew that I needed to stay calm, focused and wait for my chance. I had a plan to time my attack on the final climb like I did. I knew this was my best hope for victory. When Jakob went, that was his chance, and I would wait for mine."

60km from the finish, Fuglsang and Gilbert briefly led the race until Nibali launched an attack from behind on the Madonna del Ghisallo. Nibali bridged up and then passed the leading duo. By the time Nibali had reached the summit of the penultimate climb, he had a 1m20s advantage over his chasers.

The Italian, who has not had a victory this season, was caught by the merged group of chasers with 16km left to race. 7km later, on the upper slopes of Vergana, Zaugg launched his attack.

"It worked out very well," noted Zaugg. "I got a gap right away. 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."

All went as planned with one exception - his radio was not working. 

"I knew I could only go full gas and hope they wouldn't catch me back, so that's what I did. I controlled my bike on the 6km downhill and then I went all out on the 3km of flat road to the finish. I had no idea what my gap was as I headed to the line."

Zaugg's gap was small. The peloton had exploded in the wake of his attack, a strong group of chasers came together in an attempt to bring back Zaugg. Despite the shared effort of those behind him, Zaugg soloed across the finish line in Lecco 8sec ahead of Daniel Martin (Garmin Cervelo) in 2nd and Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) in 3rd.

Il Lombardia results...