GP Mezzana Bigli - Trofeo Oxon: No World Champion was among the 82 participants (only 54 of which got to finishing line) in the "Gran Premio Comune di Mezzana Bigli - Trofeo Oxon", a race organized by the Mezzana Bigli town council and the Unione Ciclistica Vigevanese Cer, and disputed on the flat roads of Lomellina, near the city of Pavia in Southwestern Lombardia. But several excellent sprinters were. And three of them conquered the podium. Winner of the contest reserved to U23 and Elite-2 riders was the 24-year-old Italo-Argentinian Ruben Bongiorno of the Parolin-Bassano Trade Team.
The Peloton riding in Mezzana
 The man from the Atlantic coast city of Mar del Plata, currently living in Monselice near Padua, is one of the fastest wheels of the U23 peloton and, although he didn't join the Zolder party (but being an excellent track rider too, he took part in the UCI Track World Championships in Denmark some weeks ago), he has managed to show all of his sprinting skills many a time all through the current season, by winning eight races in Italy and two in his home country.
Ruben Bongiorno
You'd better watch out for this guy (whose picture you can see on the left) in years to come: next year Bongiorno will make his debut (reportedly along with Aussie Scott Davis and a couple Italians) as a pro rider with the Panaria-Fiordo outfit, and will likely become a protagonist of bunch sprints in the pro cycling world too, perhaps battling with another Argentinian sprinter, Martín Garrido of the Spanish Relax-Fuenlabrada squad.
Bongiorno & Marco Menin (R)
 Runner-up was a sprinter from Vicenza, 11-time winner in 2002, namely Marco Menin of San Pellegrino-Bortoli-Attoni, ahead of Paride Grillo, winner of seven races so far this season, and wearing the Ceramiche Pagnoncelli jersey. The peloton rode very fast, such that the average speed at the end of the competition got close to 47 km/h.
Bongiorno's teammate riding tempo
 The sprinters teams followed the steps of the Italian National squad at Zolder: they let some not dangerous breakaways (mainly featuring Francesco Baggetta, Roland Pichler, Gianluca Cavalli and Diego Caccia, all of them Italians, whose lead went up to a maximum of 2'10, then Cavalli made a solo breakaway attempt, which didn't last for long) go in the first laps of the 127-km-long race, just to chase them down later, but as long as the end was approaching, kept riding hard at the front of the peloton, and didn't let any would-be escapees go. Apart from Manuel Dell'Acqua and Mauro Ferrari, who made a last try with 2 laps to go, but their attempt was short-lived. So it all came down to a bunch sprint, with the South American winning by a half-bike length. Ukraine's Andriy Korolyov of the local team Viris Lomellina Vigevano took seventh.
Results - Top 10 Places:
1. Ruben Bongiorno (Arg - Team Parolin-Bassano) 127 km in 2h43" (46,748 km/h)
2. Marco Menin (Ita - Gs San Pellegrino-Bottoli Artoni);
3. Paride Grillo (Ita - Gs Ceramiche Pagnoncelli-Fmb Perrel);
4. Valeri Dmitriev (Rus - L'Edile Rosa Carni);
5. Giacomo Vinoni (Ita - Gs Maserati);
6. Gianluca Mirenda (Ita - Sc Canavesi Magni);
7. Andriy Korolyov (Ukr - Gsc Viris Lomellina-Cosma);
8. Francesco Giuliani (Ita - Gs Vezza Brunero Boeris);
9. Walter Aceti (Ita - Team Aurora Named);
10. Gianluca Massano (Ita - Gs Progetto Ciclismo) - all with the same time
Teams Competition: 1. Team Parolin-Bassano
50th Coppa del Mobilio di Ponsacco: Recently crowned World U23 Time Trial Champion Tomas Vaitkus, who according to the latest news got some offers from the Landbouwkrediet-Colnago professional team, couldn't celebrate his title with a further victory. The 21-year-old Lithuanian took part in the 50th "Coppa del Mobilio di Ponsacco", an U23 and Elite-2 race disputed in Tuscany, and divided in two halves: a Road Race and - later - an ITT .
In the Time-Trial Vaitkus was edged out by Juri Alvisi (Ita - Team Parolin-Bassano), with Poland's Mariusz Wiesiak,(ranked 19th in the Worlds U23RR) taking third. Alvisi set a winning time of 41'21"05 to cover the 34-km. route, averaging a speed of 49,334 km/h. He did better than Vaitkus by 3", while Wiesiak (Polonia Da-ver Piaggio) was left 1 minute behind. Uzbekistan's Serguei Lagutin (Zoccorinese-Vellutex) repeated the fourth placing he got at Zolder in the U23 Road Race, while Italy's Giulio Tomi (Impruneta - Cotto Ref) ranked fifth.
As for the 120 km-long road race, disputed earlier, young Mattia Gavazzi (Gardacalze-Resine Ragnoli), son of Pierino, one of the fastest wheels of the peloton back in the 70s and early 80s, continued family tradition by outsprinting Mauro Busato (Fausto Coppi-Gazzera) and Fabio Borghesi (San Paolo-Saeco), the latter fully recovered after his dramatical crash in Zolder (he was taken to hospital after being involved in a pile-up in the end of last Friday's U23 RR). Fourth-placed was Enrico Gasparotto (San Donà) ahead of Daniele Dinucci (Ciaponi Toscanaexpress). The Brescia-born winner clicked a time of 2h37', with an average speed of 45,860 km/h.
The sum of points earned by Juri Alvisi in both the ITT and Road Race (where he ranked 10th), made him the Overall winner of the competition, giving the managers of his Team Parolin-Bassano something more to cheer for, besides Bongiorno's victory at Mezzana Bigli.
Chicchi To Fassa ? Should Tomas Vaitkus accept the above mentiond offers and move from Zoccorinese to Landbouwkrediet-Colnago, he would probably find again the other U23 World Champion in the pro peloton. According to latest reports, "fast Francesco" Chicchi, winner of the U23 Road Race in Zolder (his victory number eleven during the current season) is about to sign for the mighty Fassa-Bortolo. Hopefully more details will come in the next news round-ups.
GP Pretola : Davide Silvestri of the La Spezia-based Promociclo team clinched his third personal victory of the year, in the end of this race disputed in the Umbria region of Central Italy. The winner was part of a six-man breakaway that went clear in the last part of the competition. Davide Silvestri made his winning move by attacking in the final descent, where he opened an important gap on the chasers and soloed to victory with a 20" margin over runner-up Francesco Bellotti.
Results - Top 5 Places:
1. Davide Silvestri (Ita - Promociclo)
2. Francesco Bellotti (Ita - Mantovani) - at 20"
3. Massimiliano Martella (Ita - Monsummanese) -s.t.
4. Ruslan Rudchenko (Ukr - GS Danton Caparrini) - s.t.
5. Alexandre Bajenov (Rus - Cotto Ref Impruneta) - s.t.
Promociclo takes second in Parma: The Promociclo team got one more excellent result in another race disputed in the Parma province, where only Mauro Ferrari (Ita - Edile Rosa-Carni Gaverina) was able to edge out Promociclo's Alessio Signego, with Nicola Pavone (Italfine-Podenzano) taking third.
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