Alexandre Geniez (AG2R La Mondiale) claimed victory in Tre Valli Varesine after he pipped Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) with a well-timed sprint at the end of a breathless final lap in Varese.
Nibali sparked the decisive move when he accelerated fiercely on the final climb with a shade under three kilometres to go after his teammate Giovanni Visconti had whittled down the front group with a searing display of pace-making. Only Pinot could follow his rasping attack, and the pair built up what initially seemed set to be a winning advantage over the fragmented chasing group.
Pinot and Nibali never quite succeeded in disappearing from sight, however, with Fabio Aru (Astana) and Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac) among those to give chase on the shallow haul towards the finish.
ADVERTISEMENT
Geniez bided his time until the road flattened out inside the final kilometre, and he managed to bridge across to Nibali and Pinot with a little over 500 metres to go. The leading group expanded to a quarter soon afterwards when they were joined by Diego Ulissi (UAE-Team Emirates), but the Italian expended so much energy in closing the gap that he made no impact in the sprint and had to settle for fourth.
Pinot opted to open his sprint from distance but while he managed to hold off Nibali’s attempt to overhaul him, he was unable to deny Geniez, who gauged his effort smartly and hit the front inside the final 50 metres to take the honours.
Geniez was full value for his victory in what proved to be a most entertaining start to the final trio of races on the Italian calendar. Nibali, Pinot et al will all hope to be in contention for honours again at Milano-Torino on Thursday and at Il Lombardia on Saturday.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Race Results http://ift.tt/2fICvKc
No comments:
Post a Comment