Ireland's Philip Deignan (left) and Ben Swift celebrate a winning start to the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in Italy; a UCI 2.1 ranked race (Photo: Sirotti)
Ireland's Philip Deignan has begun his comeback to racing after breaking his collarbone six weeks ago in a training accident.
The Team Sky man from Donegal is riding the four-day Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in Italy, a UCI 2.1 ranked race that began with a split stage yesterday, Thursday.
In the morning 99.5km road race, Deignan’s first event since the Tour Down Under in January, there was very good news for his team when Ben Swift took the bunch sprint that decided the race and so also assumed the leader’s jersey.
The field split on a climb close to the finish as an early escape was hunted down with Swift, who was 3rd in Milan-Sanremo last Sunday, winning the finishing gallop from a bunch of 56 riders.
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Deignan came home in a large group some 53 seconds back.
The afternoon stage was a 13.3km team time trial in Gatteo; with a twist. Each team was split into two quartets, each of which rode separate tests.
Team Sky’s ‘A’ selection won the stage by 15 seconds from Rusvelo, meaning Swift leads overall by the 6 seconds in time bonuses he picked up during the opening stage, with team mates Peter Kennaugh, Dario Cataldo and Vasil Kiryienka filling places 2nd to 4th overall on the same time as each other.
The Team Sky ‘B’ selection that Deignan was a part of came home in 29th place, some 58 seconds back; clearly keeping their powder as dry as possible for the remaining three stages.
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That result left Deignan in 99th place, some 1:57 off his team mate Swift.
Stage 3 today, Friday is a flat 158km run during which the Irishman will be called on to perform team duties in defence of the leader’s jersey.
In an interview with stickybottle this week, Deignan said while his right collarbone had healed enough to allow him to race after his training crash in Monaco in mid February, he was still experiencing pain from bumps in the road and upper body efforts when putting himself under pressure on the bike.
He will be looking to simply get through some hard racing over the next three days with a view to edging him back into the very strong early season form he displayed before his spill, and second collarbone break in five months.
He broke the left side collarbone in the Tour of Britain time trial stage last September, which forced him to miss the World Championships in Florence and cut his season short.
His main goal now is to get himself into the kind of form he will need if he is to ride the Giro with his team in May when its opening three stages are to be held in Ireland.
Team Sky apply the pressure on the opening stage in Italy yesterday won by emerging Briton Ben Swift (Photo: Sirotti)
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