Vicenza Bionde 170km 23/4/06

(Belated report)

Yesterday 23/4/06 saw the running of the 62nd Vicenza - Bionde over 170 kilometers and featuring the South Australia.com AIS team. We had Matt Goss, Matt Lloyd, Pete Dawson, Simon Clarke, Wes Sulzberger, Jonny Clarke and Dan McConnell starting the race with Shaun Higgerson sitting it out suffering a cold. The first climb of the day came after 10 kilometers of the start in the center of Vicenza. Peter Dawson went clear with the eaely break over this climb. He was joined by Goss, Simon Clarke, Wes Sulzbeger and Mat Lloyd to form a group of 40 after the second climb at about 75 kilometers. A group of ten went away from this group with 40 kilometers remaining. This group included Matt Goss. In the run in to the finish in Bionde, Matt was forced to cover many attacks from his companions in the break. This left him a little flat for the sprint finish, where he finished third.