Sixth at Strade Bianche

“Though I didn’t make the podium, I´m very content with my performance. It was definitely an ideal tune-up race for the Tirreno-Adriatico and I believe that I will show my best qualities there,” Roman said.“A group of several riders broke away very soon and luckily for us, we had Bozic there. It wasn’t up to us to chase the breakaway but we tried to stay up front anyway. The pressure came with some 50km to go. I tried to make an attack on a climb and, as a result, only18 riders remained in our group. Those riders were making the race. Then there were other attacks coming and Cancellara built up a gap with 15km remaining. I was dropped on the climb but I got back on again,” Roman described the action on strade bianche.Roman had only a word of praise for the Swiss winner. “He rode away from us using his extraordinary power. He is the kind of a rider for classics, he excels at these short steep hills and he was definitely the strongest rider from the peloton.”“Our group then began playing tactically and it was clear that we were going to fight for the second place. Toward the end I was trying to work for Maxim who won this race two years ago. After all, he is faster than me and we wanted to make the podium. I went flat-out until the last 700m and then my tank was empty. Besides, I knew that all the riders in our group were much faster in bunch sprinting than me and I didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. Maxim came second, so we are happy with the team performance,” Roman added.Results (190 km): 1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi/RadioShack-Nissan) 4:44:59, 2. Maxim Iglinskij (Kaz/Astana), 3. Oscar Gatto (Ita/ Varnese Vini-Selle Italia)+42, 4. Alessandro Ballan (Ita/BMC) +46, 5. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel/BMC) +48, 6. Roman Kreuziger (CZE/Astana) +1:03.