Cycling: Lunge too far for Ballerini

THE experienced Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle answered his critics by narrowly outsprinting the Italian, Franco Ballerini, to claim his second consecutive victory in the prestigious Paris-Roubaix classic yesterday.

'Some of my rivals have been saying I could not win again, but I know that I can,' the 38-year- old Frenchman said before starting his 15th Paris-Roubaix. After holding off Ballerini's late lunge for the line at the finish in Roubaix's velodrome, he said: 'I used my experience of track racing to outwit him.'

Ballerini thought he had won - he claimed that he had heard an announcement saying he had won. 'I will not come to this race again,' he said.