Penultimate race of the 2019 season

Madrilian from Movistar Team in contention for top place in tough course, as Barbero enters morning break in final race as Blue. INS makes it two with Bernal, Sosa.

The overall winner of the 2019 Tour de France, Egan Bernal (INS), again showed great legs in the late season with a convincing win at Thursday’s 103rd edition of the Gran Piemonte (UCI 1.HC). The Italian race was held this time over 183km from Agliè to the top of the Santuario di Oropa, whose ramps were preceded by the climbs of Banchette and Nelva.

The Movistar Team gave room to its second unit at the penultimate race of the season, with two climbers from the Blue outfit, Carlos Verona and Rubén Fernández, getting over the first half of the decisive climb into a selected group of favourites, led by INEOS. Verona was the man making it further into the main group, losing contact just under 3km from the end and notching up a very decent 10th spot, 49″ behind Bernal, who won ahead of Iván Sosa (INS) and Nans Peters (ALM). The Telefónica-backed squad’s duo will be Alejandro Valverde’s main allies for Il Lombardia, end of the 2019 season for the Movistar Team, which will seek for a win in the final Monument classic of the year.

A long breakway by Carlos Barbero, caught with just over 30km from the end of his final race for the team, completed the day’s performance from the group directed by Chente García Acosta.

Cover picture (c): BettiniPhoto