Paolo Bettini pumped all the frustration and anger from last weekend’s road world championships into his pedals Sunday to score his biggest win of the 2005 season at the 92nd Championships of Zürich.

The “Cricket” wasn’t given the freedom to jump until it was too late in last week’s battle in Madrid, but no one was holding him back in the rainy, 241.8km race over the hills near Zürich.

The Olympic champion attacked with 38km to go, and by the time the main bunch reacted, it was game over.

DiLuca has a lock on it now

Photo: Graham Watson

“I am over the moon,” Bettini said after taking a dramatic solo win. “The weather today was dreadful, cold and rainy but nonetheless I decided to go for it as I wanted to win. Today I proved that I am in great shape. Normally I tend to ride better when it is warm but today even with the rain and the cold I rode a great race.”

Coming through second at nearly three minutes down was Fränk Schleck (CSC) while Tour de France stage-winner Lorenzo Bernucci (Fassa Bortolo) was third. Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas-Bianchi) slinked across fifth, enough to seal the overall the title in the inaugural ProTour series.

Early breaks, rainy day
In a clear sign that the European summer is over, rain and cold temperatures welcomed the peloton for the 92nd running of the Swiss classic. Long a post-Tour tradition, the race was moved from August to October to join Paris-Tours and Giro di Lombardia to make a trio of fall classics to wrap up the 2005 racing season. The calendar change meant many of the big names the race typically attracted, including Tour heroes Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich, were nowhere to be seen. Still, there were enough big guns taking up the fight to make for a good race.

Early in the day, a six-man break snuck away in the first half-hour of racing. In the move were: Karsten Kroon and Joost Posthuma (both Rabobank), Jan Hruska (Liberty Seguros), Mauricio Ardila (Davitamon-Lotto), Aurelien Clerc (Phonak) and Gorka Verdugo (Euskaltel). The break enjoyed some quality time in the rain, but never got more than about six minutes off the front through the opening 100km of racing. The peloton fractured under the increased pace, with scores of riders abandoned as the circuit course brought the main bunch into Zürich (less than 50 would officially score a finish).

Things blew wide open with about 75km to go and the main bunch split into several groups. The steep Pfannenstiel, always the main race-breaker, proved to be decisive yet again. Quick Step worked nearly their entire team into the front group to time trial the chase while pre-race favorites Damiano Cunego (Lampre), Alejandro Valverde (Illes Balears) and Carlos Sastre (CSC) were left chasing. Bettini was especially motivated. Following his disappointing 13th in the Madrid world’s, the Italian didn’t want his strong form to go to waste. Instead of waiting, Bettini jumped across to the dwindling leading group and then attacked with about 40km to go, an early move that threw more chaos into an already shattered bunch.

Phonk's Clerc leads the day's early break

Photo: Graham Watson

“I had at my disposal a fantastic team that really motivated me when I was thinking of abandoning the race. They made me react and go for it,” Bettini recounted. “This just goes to show how important it is to have a great team and it also shows what a difference this makes in difficult moments.”

Bettini – a three-time winner of the old World Cup series - rode alone through the wet roads and cold weather to score just his third win of the 2005 season, a rather sparse haul for the usually prolific Olympic champion.

His other wins this year were stages in the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España, respectively. He reloads next week for the Italian fall classics and will take aim for Giro di Lombardia on Oct. 15.

Cunego was left to chase...

Photo: Graham Watson

“Lombardia is one of the monumental races in cycling,” Bettini said. “I really would love to win it. It certainly would make a great end to a season where I have often been very unlucky.”

Di Luca seals the deal
In Bettini’s wake, riders were attacking, dropping back and just hoping to hang on. Team CSC’s Shleck bridged out of a chasing group to catch Bernucci, but the pair could never get closer than three minutes.

Schleck’s strong ride earned him an impressive second place for the young Luxemburger and helped widen Team CSC’s lead in the ProTour team standings to rival Rabobank with just two races left. There was bad news for Team CSC as oft-injured Dane Jakob Piil crashed and broke his hip.

Di Luca didn’t start up his chase in earnest until 20km to go, but he wasn’t necessarily hunting Bettini, but instead looking to score some points to close out the ProTour title.

Long, wet and winding roads for the boys in the break

Photo: Graham Watson

Even before the start of the race, Di Luca had all but locked up the title and scoring points today closed any hope from Italian rival Davide Rebellin. Di Luca, who held the ProTour lead since Fleche Wallone back in March, will take the inaugural ProTour title.

Just about everyone else in the top 10 - from second place Tom Boonen with 171 points to eighth-place George Hincapie with 128 points - have already hung up the cleats for the season.

Michael Barry (Discovery Channel) came through 28th at 8:40 down while Chris Horner (Saunier Duval) and Christian Vande Velde (CSC) were in the final group at 24:35 back in 39th and 47th places, respectively. Results-Züri Metzgete
1. Paolo Bettini (I), QuickStep, 240.9km in 6:06:22
2. Frank Schleck (Lux), CSC, at 2:57
3. Lorenzo Bernucci (I), Fassa Bortolo
4. Danilo Di Luca (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, at 3:10
5. Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi
6. Steffen Wesemann (Swi), T-Mobile, at 3:35
7. Heinrich Haussler (G), Gerolsteiner, at 3:39
8. Thomas Lövqvist (S), Française des Jeux, at 3:41
9. Mirko Celestino (I), Domina Vacanze, at 3:57
10. Vladimir Miholjevic (Slo), Liquigas-BianchiFULLRESULTS