Pozzato. No sex, no medal in Melbourne.

Note to Filippo Pozzato: abstinence isn’t worth it.

Based on Pozzato’s less than sterling, gold or bronze results in the World Championship Road Race, you’d have to say that his semen-hoarding strategy was a failure. No whoopee, no rainbow.

After being touted as one the the major favorites for the 262k race, the Italian sat on wheels, made no aggressive moves and got beat by Allan Davis of Australia for the last place on the podium. It was an underwhelming performance for a rider who arrived in Melbourne full of confidence.

After the race, at least one rider, Björn Leukemans, leveled a familiar charge at Pozzato. The Belgian claimed that Pozzato did nothing but follow wheels.

“After my attack on the penultimate lap, we were in a group of six. Why didn’t Filippo Pozzato work with us? If he had done so, we could have gone. Now he has nothing,” said Luekemans. It was the same judgement Tom Boonen fired at the Italian a few Paris Roubaixs back.

While it was evident that Philippe Gilbert did everything possible to win, there will be plenty of Italian controversy over what exactly happened with Pippo. The wind didn’t do any favors for Gilbert but no one would argue with his assessment: “I have raced to win, but to no avail, though I tried everything,” Gilbert said to Sporza. What story will the celibate Pozzato have to tell?

Unless you’re Italian, it’s damn hard to find a quote from Pozzato or Italy’s coach Paolo Bettini about what happened and why. All Pippo could say was he focused on the wrong guy and the wrong wheel.

“I was on Oscar Freire’s wheel, but today Oscar’s wasn’t the right one,” said Pozzatto. Twisted Spoke says yes, focus was a problem because he was distracted by non-stop sexual desires after almost six months of celibacy.

There was also the issue of positioning, as Pozzato found himself too far back to respond quickly to Hushovd and Matti Breschel of Denmark. “I needed to be a couple of positions further up when the sprint was launched. If so, things would have gone differently. I wanted at least a medal, you could see how I was going in the last 30 metres,” said Pozzatto.

Sadly all this points to sexual miscalculation. The Italian should have been frolicking in preparation for the World Championship Road Race. Sometimes randy gets the rainbow.

Instead, the self imposed celibacy led to a lack of focus, questionable strategy and race positioning. Not to mention the failed opportunity to get busy with Australian porn starlets Monica Mayhem and Jodi Moore.

Coach Bettini made a point of selecting the gears for his Italian squad. Perhaps next time he’ll order Pozzato to abstain from abstinence.