Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) soloed to victory in Milano-Torino, striking out in the final kilometre on the famous Superga climb to take his second victory of the 2026 season.
The Briton jumped clear of a select lead group on the climb overlooking Turin, with his rivals offering no answer to his scathing acceleration.
Behind him, Tobias Halland Johanessen (Uno-X Mobility) was best of the rest, the Norwegian rolling in for second place at four second down. Past winner Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) couldn't replicate his triumph from four years ago, instead rounding out the podium at a margin of five seconds.
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"It was a weird day," Pidcock said at the finish. "It felt like the first race of the season almost, just with the race rhythm and all the accelerations all day, it felt a bit heavy-legged. But luckily in the end I had a kick there and I could hold them off.
"Primož is hard to read, he's always in the saddle," he said about dealing with tough opponents in the finale. "So I was expecting him to be good there, and I was hesitating to attack near the end because everyone was looking pretty strong. But I knew at one point I had to go."
Pidcock added Milano-Torino to his schedule as a final pre-Milan-San Remo hit-out, and this victory will only add to his stock as one of the contenders for Saturday, though he was not giving away too much about how important it may be to win this week.
"A win's a win, they're not easy to come by, so of course it's nice to get your hands in the air," he said.
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How it unfolded
Milano-Torino, usually one of the more changeable race routes of the one-day Classics, stuck with the climber-friendly parcours for its 106th edition with a 174km route taking the peloton from Rho in Lombardy to the Superga climb in Piedmont.
A largely pan-flat opening 150km would give way to two major tests in the final in the form of two ascents of the Superga (4.9km at 9.1%) overlooking Turin, with the second ascent playing host to the race's decisive summit finish.
Without much to battle over until the final kilometres of the day, it was no surprise that a lower profile group of riders got away early on in the break of the day. Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) was joined in the move by Patrick Konrad (Lidl-Trek), Valentin Ferron (Cofidis), Andrea Pietrobon (Polti-VisitMalta), Adrien Maire (Unibet Rose Rockets), and Alessandro Milesi (Biesse-Carrera-Premac).
The early breakaway (Image credit: Getty Images)
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe set the pace at the front of peloton behind, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Pinarello-Q36.5 also joining in to keep the breakaway within two minutes.
The break would hang on until the first ascent of the Superga, though with an ever-receding one-minute gap. Pietrobon pushed on alone up the climb as his breakmates were caught, though he, too, was brought back with 21km to go.
The peloton, meanwhile, was slowly thinned out on the way up until Roglič launched the first major move of the day in the final kilometre before the summit. He was joined in the move by Alexander Cepeda (EF Education-EasyPost), while Pidcock and Cian Uijtdebroeks (Moivstar) were next to react and come across.
Roglič and Cepeda in front (Image credit: Getty Images)
That quartet crossed the top of the climb together, though more would join them on the way down to make it a 12-man lead group. Johannessen and Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) were the biggest names to bridge across, while Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), Carlos Verona (Lidl-Trek), Simone Gualdi (Lotto-Intermarché), Adrien Boichis (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), and Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS-Astana) also joined the front.
Red Bull had the most men in the move, and they played the numbers game to their advantage, with Roglič blocking at the front for his teammate, neo-pro Boichis. The Frenchman slipped away at the bottom of the descent with 12km to run, the 23-year-old swiftly building a 20-second lead on the flat run back to the start of Superga. Behind him, several counter-attacks flew, though none would break clear. Instead, a larger chase group made the bridge across in time for the final ascent.
Boichis on the offensive (Image credit: Getty Images)
Boichis was caught at the start of the climb, with Uno-X Mobility leading the group across with 4.7km to go. Pinarello-Q36.5 and Movistar were quick to take over, looking to set up Cian Uijtdebroeks and Tom Pidcock.
The work at the front saw the group slim down to 12 riders once again on the steep slopes to the finish. All the main favourites were there once again with Uijtdebroeks looking particularly keen as his teammates Natnael Tesfatsion and Jefferson Cepeda did the work on the front.
It was the other Cepeda – Alexander – who launched the attacks with 1.5km to go, however. The Ecuadorian's move off the front saw Uijtdebroeks, Roglič, Pidcock, and Johannessen go with him.
A push by Roglič with 1.2km to go put Cepeda and Uijtdebroeks in difficulty, but the quintet were all back together for the final kilometre, with several others, including Pellizzari and Fortunato, coming across, too.
From there, it was the first major move which proved decisive, with Pidcock flowing to the front around a tight left-hand bend as he launched his move with just over 600 metres to run. Johannessen was his nearest rival, but none of the other four could match Pidcock's pace in the final, leaving him to go clear and celebrate the 12th road victory of his career.
The final podium at Milano-Torino (Image credit: Getty Images)
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor, later being hired full-time. Her favourite races include Strade Bianche, the Tour de France Femmes, Paris-Roubaix, and Tro-Bro Léon.
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