Jan Bakelants (AG2R La Mondiale) took his first victory of the season on Friday in the Gran Piemonte as he pulled off a late coup to deprive the sprinters.
The final remnants of the day’s breakaway, out since the early kilometres, were caught with 7km to go and while most teams started to think about the sprint, Bakelants caught them off guard. On the gentle descent to the line the 29-year-old managed to open up a gap and hold it, with Matteo Trentin (Etixx-QuickStep) and Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani-CSF) taking second and third from the bunch.
The Gran Piemonte was back on the calendar after a two-year absence, celebrating its 99th edition and returning to the so-called trittico di autunno, in which it is bookended by yesterday’s Milano-Torino and Sunday’s Il Lombardia.
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The race is less hilly than the other late-season Italian one-day races and was always likely to be a less selective affair, even if a number of riders did climb off their bikes in the cold and wet conditions.
The peloton did split in two on the first of two proper climbs – the Alice Superiore with 70km to go – but was back together by the second – the Prascorsano with 40km to go. By that point the breakaway, which never built a substantial lead of more than 2:30, was being inexorably reeled in. Despite some late flurries of defiance it came back together late on, whereupon Bakelants struck out for glory.
How it unfolded
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