Grande Trittico Lombardo

Dane puts end to eight-month recovery from leg injury with first outing in Movistar Team colours in Italia; American on the attack against big names in the peloton.

/ Today’s route

Nearly 200 kilometers to sum up three classics whose organisers created this special classic, a result of post-pandemic times, in northern Italy. The Coppa Agostoni, the Tre Valli Varesine and the Coppa Bernocchi thus came together with a flat opening course before a demanding finish in the 2008 Worlds circuit, with a climb to the ‘Piccolo Stelvio’ in Morazzone, four ascents to Via Montello and five of Ronchi / Via XXV Aprile, the site of the finish.

/ Weather report

Uncomfortable rain -even some serious spells of downpour, especially into the final circuit- for most of the race, covered otherwise with mild temperatures, around 20ºC, and southwesterly winds with no influence in the race.

/ Las claves del día

• The day started off with some expected, pleasant news: the debut of Mathias Norsgaard. Eight months after a horrible injury to his right leg in Girona and following a difficult recovery, the Dane put his first backnumbers on with the squad today managed by Maximilian Sciandri. It was nice to see his impressive figure (he’s 2.02m tall, mind you) with our team colours after such a long wait.
• Five riders built an early, massive 10′ gap over the peloton: Anton Kuzmin (GAZ), Davide Baldaccini (CPK), Oscar Riesebeek (AFC), Quinten Hermans (CWG) and Raffaele Radice (SAT). CCC -before the Varese circuit- and Astana + INEOS -into the first laps of the final loop- were the teams most involved in chasing them down, before a strong move by Trek into the final 40km.

• The breakaway split as two Movistar Team youngsters resisted, inside the final two-and-a-half laps, in the selected peloton of about 30 riders: Johan Jacobs and Matteo Jorgenson (two who love these conditions). It was a fine effort from the 21-year-old American from Idaho, on the attack into the penultimate climb of Via Montello as part of a group including the likes of Vincenzo Nibali (TFS), Gorka Izagirre (AST) and Michał Kwiatkowski (INS).
• Jorgenson finished in 21st place as part of a second group behind the main contenders, 1’16” down on Izagirre, who took advantage from his team-mates’ strength and his tactical nose. Alex Aranburu (AST) completed a one-two for the Kazakh team, ahead of Greg Van Avermaet (CCC), 3rd.

/ Upcoming goals

The Movistar Team continues to ride in Italy this week – it will actually the country they spend the most races at through the end of the 2020 season. Wednesday will bring back the RCS races with Milano-Torino, this time held over a completely flat, sprinter-suited course as prelude to Milano-Sanremo.

— Milano-Torino lineup (Wednesday 5th): Dario Cataldo, Gabriel Cullaigh, Juri Hollmann, Mathias Norsgaard, Einer Rubio, Eduardo Sepúlveda, Davide Villella.

Cover picture (c): BettiniPhoto