Pascal Richard

An absolutely superb day's Italian racing ended with another top 10 placing for the Linda McCartney Pro Cycling Team at Tirreno-Adriatico. Olympic Road Race Champion Pascal Richard took 8th, matching his team-mate Max Sciandri's result of the previous day.

Pascal had cruised home in 13th behind Max and stage winner Oscar Freire on that 6th stage, and was clear in his intentions for the next day. The team had studied the route in detail, and Pascal had selected the 7th and hardest day, today's "etape reine" between Teramo and Torricella Sicura.

"Yesterday I load the gun, today I fire the bullets," he said as he focused on his task ahead in Teramo's central square. But there were a lot of big guns setting their aim that morning, and the day was dominated by men meaning serious business. Dutch Champion Martin Den Bakker set off in the company of 1998 World Champion Oscar Camenzind in a determined effort to split the race. The pace of the race on the big climbs was simply unbelievable, and it was all that many could do to hang on.

"There were guys squealing with pain at the back," said David McKenzie. "Mobilvetta lost three guys early on, and people were getting spat all round me. Jan Ullrich was dropped and so was Mario Cipollini. Mapei and Once were going mental trying to bring the race back together and the rest of us were suffering. I got dropped once too often, and this time there was no way back, they were just going too fast." Like many others, Macca's Tirreno-Adriatico ended at the soigneur's car as the race entered the tortuous finishing circuits. But he can look back on a good week, with a 12th in the race's big sprint last Thursday, and some valuable assistance to his leaders.

Ciaran Power was doing an absolutely fantastic ride up at the front, mixing it with Jalabert, Olano, Boogerd and Bartoli as names like Andrea Tafi and David Etxebarria were blown out by the pace of the select group. Maurizio De Pasquale was still in there and so were Max and Pascal, giving the McCartneys a strong foursome in the vanguard, which now numbered only 30 or so hardy souls. Ciaran only lost contact after he punctured on a crazy descent and he ground on to the finish alone, an exhausted but satisfied figure. "Ciaran was absolutely magnificent out there today," his manager Sean Yates was later to say.

Meanwhile, things were happening at the front. Den Bakker attacked Camenzind over the top of the finish hill with one lap of the 14km circuit remaining and the former rainbow jersey man cracked. Behind, Den Bakker's Rabobank team leader Michael Boogerd hurled himself into an absolutely blistering counter-attack that only Credit Agricole's Jens Voigt could match. Leader Abraham Olano and his Once team-mates including Laurent Jalabert were grovelling to stay in contention, as were Michele Bartoli and his Mapei troops. It was a masterpiece of tactical understanding and pure grit from Rabobank, and Boogerd's all-out effort carried him up to and beyond Den Bakker. The group behind splintered under the strain of following Boogerd, with only Pascal Richard of the McCartney cavalry able to hold his place.

Boogerd won alone, arms outstretched in ecstatic victory with a smile that seemed wider than the deep blue Adriatic. Marco Serpellini and Jens Voigt followed him, with an exhausted Martin Den Bakker hanging on for fourth. The remainder of the front group were right behind, and Pascal took fourth in the dash for the line to claim the team's second 8th place in two days.