Missaglia claims Cyclassics win

A jubilant Missaglia crosses the line

Gabriele Missaglia jumped away from the field to land a surprise win in the Cyclassics World Cup race in Hamburg on Sunday.

The Italian Lampre rider escaped with fellow countryman Francesco Casagrande as they headed towards the finish of the 251 km run through Hamburg.

Missaglia's sprint was simply too strong for Casagrande, who was also an agonising second in the three-week Tour of Italy in May.

The pair finished two seconds clear of the pack in six hours 17 minutes 22 seconds with Fabio Baldato completing an Italian 1-2-3 by leading home the field just two seconds behind.

The goal was to extend my lead on my most dangerous rivals and we've done that

  World Cup leader Erik Zabel

Germany's Erik Zabel finished fourth to consolidate his World Cup lead.

"I've never been so happy with a fourth place," said the Berliner.

"The final part of the race is really tough, which makes it difficult to catch riders who have escaped."

The Deutsche Telekom rider, winner of the Milan-San Remo and the Amstel Gold races, has 330 points after the sixth of the 10-race series.

Latvia's Romans Vainstens is a distant second on 138, with Belgian Andrei Tchmil third on 136, according to provisional results.

Action

The early part of the race was marked by a long lone break from Dane Soren Petersen of Team Cologne.

After eight kilometres he broke away, eventually building a lead of 22 minutes during his lengthy 182km sting at the front of the race.

The bunch came back together, but with one final 41km lap to go, Dutch rider Marc Wauters, Spain's world champion Oscar Freire and French Tour stage winner Christophe Agnolutto went clear of the main field

Riders cross northern Germany's giant Koehlbrand bridge

The trio representing the Rabobank, Mapei and AG2R teams were successfully chased down by a train of riders from Zabel's Telekom team, before the final action began on the last climb of the day, 18km from home.

Paris-Roubaix winner Johan Museeuw of Belgium and Latvia's Romans Vainsteins tried to go clear as the field split.

The pair from Mapei and Vini Caldirola produced a massive change of pace, and the reaction in the bunch started to spoil Telekom's plans to lead Zabel home for a bunch sprint.

The German team's Tour runner-up Jan Ullrich was forced to chase alone, although there was something of a regroupment at the top and the pair were hauled back.

But that development and the thinning down of the top German squad's numbers inevitably led to further attacks, with Vainsteins' team-mate Casagrande extremely active at the front.

With 10km remaining the Italian broke clear, and after six hours of racing compatriot Missaglia was the only man to go with his move.

The pair worked well together and it was soon obvious that this was the winning break, although they were never far from the main field's chase.

Although world number one Casagrande is regarded as the stronger all-round rider than compatriot Missaglia, it was the Lampre man who had the better sprint.

The Vini Caldirola rider, who was heartbroken after losing his Giro d'Italia's leader's pink jersey on the penultimate day, had to taste another second bitter second place.

Next week Casagrande will be confident about going one better, in the Spanish round of the World Cup at San Sebastian. It is a race that he has won for the past two years.

Result:

1. Gabriele Missaglia (Italy) Lampre 6 h 17m 22s
2. Francesco Casagrande (Italy) Vini Caldirola same time
3. Fabio Baldato (Italy) Fassa Bortolo @ 2 secs
4. Erik Zabel (Germany) Deutsche Telekom @ 2 secs
5. Thor Hushvod (Norway) Credit Agricole @ 2 secs
6. Gabriele Balducci (Italy) Fassa Bortolo @ 2 secs
7. Marco Zanotti (Italy) Liquigas @ 2 secs
8. Massimilano Mori (Italy) Saeco @ 2 secs
9. Magnus Backstedt (Sweden) Credit Agricole @ 2 secs
10. Romans Vaistens (Latvia) Vini Caldirola @ 2 secs

World Cup standings after six races:

1. Zabel 330 points
2. Vainstens 138
3. Andrei Tchmil (Belgium) Lotto 136
4. Baldato 134
5. Peter van Petegem (Belgium) Farm Frites 122
6. Paulo Bettini (Italy) Mapei 120
7. Zbigniew Spruch (Poland) Lampre 116
8. Johan Museeuw (Balgium) Mapei 111
9. Casagrande 106
10. Missaglia 102