Cycling brings Italy two more medals in the road race of the Mediterranean Games: Tommaso Dati claimed victory and the gold medal while Federico Iacomoni won bronze behind Portuguese rider Tiago Antunes, who won Saturday's gold in the time trial.
The two Team Ukyo riders raced perfectly with Iacomoni proving invaluable once again for his teammate Dati.
THE RACE. A race with 51 starters could only be thrilling and full of attacks and it lived up to expectations with numerous moves following one another, with the main group chasing back and with riders eventually spread out along the roads of Taranto. The decisive action came on the final climb of the day, Monte Trazzora, thanks to Portuguese rider Antunes who, after great work from his teammates, launched his attack, immediately followed by Tommaso Dati and Federico Iacomoni. The three worked well together, chased by a quintet made up of Maltese Mifsud, Cypriot Zabelinskiy, Portuguese Fernandes Silva, Spanish Garcia and Turkish Abay: no chance for them, the three were too strong and eventually took their places on the podium.
FINISHING ORDER
1. ITA - Tommaso DATI in 2:59:52, average speed 44.466 kmh
2. POR - Tiago GOMES ANTUNES
3. ITA - Federico IACOMONI +0:01
4. CYP - Bogdan ZABELINSKIY +1:18
5. MLT - Andrea MIFSUD +1:34
6. ESP - Jose Maria GARCIA SORIANO
7. POR - Pedro Miguel FERNANDES DA SILVA
8. TUR - Burak ABAY
9. ESP - Manuel PENALVER ANIORTE +3:10
10. ITA - Luca GIAIMI