Former under-23 World Champion Axel Laurance (Ineos Grenadiers) has captured a tough uphill sprint victory on the first day of the Settimana Coppi e Bartali stage race in Italy.
Second was Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla), with Italian veteran Diego Ulissi (XDS-Astana), on the hunt for the 50th win of his career, in third.
After an early break on the 161.2km stage from Barbaresco was swept up in the finale of the hilly trek through north-west Italy, the opening day's battle came down to an uphill grind through the town of Barolo, peaking out at 11%.
Laurance's second victory this season, after a late breakaway on the closing stage of the Tour de Provence, also gives him the right to the first leader's jersey of the five-day, 2.1 event.
An early move by seven attackers – including British racers Ben Granger (Solution Tech-Nippo-Rali) and Will Harding (Mg.K Vis Costruzioni e Ambiente) – was kept under control by Ineos Grenadiers on the long grind across the plains and hills of wine country in northern Italy.
Then, despite a crash in the final 30km, the leaders were swept up on the main challenge of the day, the second-category La Morra climb, which peaked 11km before the finish.
Having reached the top of the steady, not overly difficult, ascent loosely together thanks to EF Education-Easy Post and Jayco-AlUla, the peloton swept down towards the finish at the Piedmont wine-making town of Barolo.
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Ineos Grenadiers once again took over on the front once again with about five kilometres to go, and with two kilometres left to race, it was still gruppo compatto. Ineos once again led the bunch onto the 5% lower slopes of the final, short climb, with Laurance opening up the uphill sprint and holding on all the way through to the finish.
Thursday's 158km stage from Lodi to Massalengo has some stiff, short climbs mid-way through, but is most likely to end with another bunch sprint, this time on much flatter terrain.
The peloton races among the vineyards of Piedmont on stage 1 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
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