Pascal Richard

The Linda McCartney Foods Cycling Team's very own Olympic Champion Pascal Richard finished 4th in the 5-day Cecchi Gori Settimana International race in Italy.

As expected, the weekend's stages saw some fascinating racing, with Pascal and the team determined to push Paolo Bettini and his Mapei boys all the way. Starting Saturday with a 9 second advantage over Pascal and Marco Velo, and just 4 seconds over Wladimir Belli, Bettini knew he would be in for a rough ride.

Linda McCartney team manager Sean Yates decided to play his joker, and sent his other team leader, Max Sciandri, on the attack. Max and a few other opportunists bought themselves a two-minute lead that Francesco Casagrande's Vini Caldirola team fought desperately to contain. Over mountainous roads, Max strove on, causing panic behind as Casagrande could not make contact, and men flew out the rear of the peloton in handfuls. The McCartneys went for broke, Pascal bridging brilliantly across to join Max, taking the other major contenders with him.

Linda McCartney now had two men in an 11-strong break, and they attempted to make the numbers count with some all out attacks. Unfortunately for Pascal, Bettini had chosen this race to make complete his metamorphosis from trusty lieutenant to imposing leader. In a masterful performance from the Mapei man, he not only repulsed everything that Linda McCartney and the other teams threw at him, he still had enough to actually win the stage at it's lofty hilltop conclusion.

"The speed they went up that last climb was incredible," said Sean Yates, shaking his head. "It should have been a 'little ring' climb; really steep on a surface that wouldn't have looked out of place on the dark side of the moon. I looked down at the speedo in the car and they were doing over 25 miles an hour!"

That obstacle surmounted, the leaders all retained their positions on Sunday's final stage. Ciaran Power worked his way into a group that would eventually dispute the stage win between them, but unluckily lost contact with them over the top of the days big climb. The winner was Fabio Fontanelli, now with Mercatone Uno, but a star in Brighton when the Tour de France visited the UK in 1994.

Sean Yates professed himself to be well pleased with the week's work: "I can't remember us missing a single move all week. The only bit of bad news was Ben Brooks's tumble, but he's recovering well back in Toulouse, and I hope he'll be ready for Route Adelie on Friday."

How did this race compare to others?

"Just as hard as Tirreno-Adriatico really. Same field, apart from Once and Telekom, and really aggressive racing. The Italian teams that have come in for them have had a point to prove, and have been going full on all week. When you compare this to Criterium International (concurrent French race) it's a bit of a joke really. That's covered on Eurosport and has a good UCI ranking, but this is where the real racing takes place. I'd recommend it to anyone."