Nicolò Garibbo delivered a major surprise to outpower two Soudal-QuickStep rivals on the hilly stage 1 of the newly revived Giro di Sardegna, and claim a major win for Continental squad UKYO against his WorldTour rivals.
In a drawn-out four-way sprint in Bosa, Garibbo narrowly defeated former Italian Champion Filippo Zana, with Urko Berrade (Kern Pharma) completing the day's podium ahead of Zana's Soudal teammate Gianmarco Garofoli in fourth.
The quartet of attackers formed on the hilly middle section of the 189 section, passing a four-man earlier break and going on to battle it out of the day's honours almost a minute ahead of a loosely formed peloton of some 40 riders
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Zana and Garofoli did their utmost to shed their two rivals in the closing kilometre, but Garibbo handled the situation well then just outpaced Zana to claim the first professional win of his career against notably superior odds.
"It's unbelievable, I didn't have good feelings in the start, in the climb I felt better, I tried to attack several times, on the hardest climb I was close to the first riders, but I preferred to wait with the other riders," Garibbo said.
"Then when Garofoli attacked I followed him, and I don't have words to express what happened. It's a win I dreamed of every day during the winter training, I try to do my best because i wanted to increase my level and in the past I had many problems, but now I want to show what I can do. I'm very happy for the team and they believed in me, we did a great job - incredible."
How it unfolded
Back on the calendar for the first time since Peter Sagan won in 2011 and counting on the island's most famous pro of recent years, 2015 Vuelta a España winner Fabio Aru, among the new race organisation, the race set out on Wednesday for a 189.8km opening stage from Castelsardo to Bosa.
Five riders made a move early on in the rugged first half running down the western side of Sardinia on a warm Wednesday afternoon: Roberto Carlos González
(Solution Tech NIPPO Rali), Cristian Remelli (General Store - Essegibi - F.Lli Curia), Hamish Armitt (Novo Nordisk), Philipp Hofbauer (Novo Nordisk) and Matteo Spreafico (Mg.K Vis Costruzioni e Ambiente).
González picked up maximum points in the first two climbs, the Osilo and the Ossi to stake an early claim in the mountains competition whilst Soudal-QuickStep took a nominal command of the pursuit in the peloton.
The wildly uneven slopes of the third and final ascent, the Vilanove Monteleone, proved too much for Spreafico, in any case, whilst an acceleration by former Giro d'Italia Alpine stage winner Zana (Soudal-QuickStep) shattered what was left of the chasing peloton.
Visibly the strongest rider on the day, Zana's move put paid to the bulk of the break on the long descent off the Vilanove, with only Remelli and González able to hang on.
More accelerations by Zana saw González and the Italian veteran move ahead with around 30 kilometres to go. Zana continued to lay down a relentless pace, keeping a trio of chasers with Urko Berrade (Kern Pharma), teammate Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal-QuickStep) and fellow Italian Nicolo Garibbo (UKYO) at a distance on the grinding series of unclassified coastal climbs that followed.
Eventually the trio bridged across, giving Soudal superior numbers for the finale and helping the break ahead keep a bunch of some 30 or 40 chasers at bay. González finally cracked, his mission of taking the mountains jersey completed and perhaps wanting to save energy for the days ahead, while Garofoli began burying himself for Zana, and with 17 kilometres to go, they had 40 seconds on the bunch.
Garibbo though was proving a much tougher nut to crack, and although Berrade was yo-yoing in and out of the group, he was still there as the stage finally emerged from the hills for the much flatter finale. Behind a very uneven pursuit by the bunch and with Soudal blocking fiercely as well, made it hard to bring the four back in. Then as their margin duly swelled to over a minute, the day's honours were looking certain to be decided by the quartet ahead.
The four wisely opted to keep things together for as long as possible during the run-in, and even as far as the the slightly uphill grind towards the finish in Bosa. Garofoli tried one move, Zana then went from long in the sprint, but nothing could stop Garibbo from claiming a momentous win and the overall lead to boot.
Thursday's stage 2 of the five-day race is a much shorter, if equally hilly 136.3 kilometre run from Oristano to Carbonia. But if 30 kilometres between the final Category 2 ascent of Valico Montecani could yet see a reduced bunch sprint play out for a second day running, a tearful Garibbo told reporters he was not yet able to consider his options on GC, given the triumph was logically taking a lot of time to sink in.
"Now I don't believe I have won, I'm only thinking about now, not wanting to think about tomorrow. I just want to think about this incredible victory."
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