Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) took victory on stage 2 of the Tour of the Alps, narrowly pipping Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) to the line from a small group sprint on the uphill finale to Val Martello.
Pellizzari had looked the strongest on the last 6km climb, catching up to the lone early breakaway survivor, Mattia Gaffuri (Picnic-PostNL), but Ineos Grenadiers worked to bring things back and form a leading group of five in the finale.
This was made up of Ineos duo Egan Bernal and Thymen Arensman, Gaffuri, Pellizzari, and the latter's Red Bull teammate Lorenzo Finn, the under-23 World Champion.
As a reduced group sprint looked likely heading into the last kilometre, the German team had another card to play in the form of Aleksandr Vlasov, who bridged across late and attacked in the last 600 metres, forcing Bernal to chase.
The Colombian champion brought back Vlasov, but Pellizzari was sitting in his wheel and ready to pounce. He launched his sprint from second wheel and powered to the line, just beating Arensman with time to celebrate over the line for his second career professional victory.
Pellizzari also took over the lead of the race thanks to his victory, with stage 1 winner Tommaso Dati (Team UKYO) not featuring in the thrilling finale.
"It was a crazy day. I came here three years ago and I finished third in one stage. One year after I was second on a stage, and now I've finally won a stage here," said Pellizzari at the finish.
"It's one of the best races in the world, and I have to say thanks to my teammates; they did an amazing job. I was a bit tired before the last climb, I was not sure for the next, but in the end I won for them."
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How it unfolded
The Alps loomed on a tough mountain stage (Image credit: Getty Images)
With the first climb of the day on stage 2 of the Tour of the Alps starting after around 30km of racing, there was significant interest in getting into the day's breakaway, with nine riders eventually getting up the road as the race headed from Telfs in Austria down to Val Martell in Italy.
They were able to build their advantage over the Piller Hohe (9 km at 6.2%) climb, with Gaffuri, Oliver Stockwell (Bahrain-Victorious), Luca Verrando (Solution Tech-Nippo-Rali), Davide Bais (Polti-VisitMalta), Dominik Röber, Emanuel Zangerle (both Vorarlberg) and three riders from the Austrian national team: Benjamin Eckerstorfer, David Paumann, and Valentin Poschacher getting up the road on Tuesday.
Their gap went out to more than four minutes at times during the 147.5km stage, and they led the race through some stunning backdrops and over the longest climb of the day: Reschenpass/Passo Resia (16km at 3.3%), but the peloton was always in control and started to gradually bring them back.
Tudor Pro Cycling, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Ineos Grenadiers were among the teams to contribute to the work, and heading into the final 10km and uphill finish in Val Martello, where 6.3km at a 7.9% average gradient and a final rise to the line would decide the day, the break's lead was down to 1:30.
Ineos and Tudor continued to chase hard into the final 5km, and onto the climb, that break's lead was melting away quickly, and the nine-rider group in front had started to fracture. Gaffuri pressed on, and while Stockwell and Bais were briefly able to follow him, the Italian was soon on his own into the final 4.2km.
Mattia Gaffuri leads the breakaway during stage 2 (Image credit: Getty Images)
By this point, the peloton was splitting completely, with the GC favourites coming to the fore under the pressure applied by Ineos for Arensman. The Dutchman attacked with 3.6km to go and only Finn and defending champion Michael Storer were able to go with him.
19-year-old Finn took over in impressive fashion and rolled through with Arensman as Storer appeared to struggle. Gaffuri was still in front with 3km to go, but his lead was down to just 18 seconds.
Pellizzari stormed across to the group of GC favourites with a solo burst, giving Red Bull the numeric advantage. The Italian then countered with 2.9km to go, putting Arensman instantly on a gap and dropping Storer in the process.
The Dutchman got settled into a rhythm to try and gradually chase down Pellizzari, but he also had Finn glued to his wheel as a deterrent, while Pellizzari continued to chase down Gaffuri, whom he caught heading into the last 2km.
Bernal also bridged across to his teammate Arensman in the chase, with Pellizzari taking a moment to breathe on Gaffuri's wheel, and the Colombian immediately got to work trying to bring Arensman back to the two Italians in front.
The five leaders came back together in the last 1.5km, and Bernal took over on the front with only 500 metres left before the top of the climb.
Finn kept the pace high heading into the last kilometre as Mathys Rondel (Tudor) and Vlasov tried to bridge across as well, giving Red Bull another option for the final kick to the line.
Arriving with speed, Vlasov attacked over the top, forcing Bernal into chasing him down, which he did, but this gave Pellizzari the perfect lead-out for the sprint, and he was able to hold off Arensman, who was coming quickly, and Gaffuri, who scored a great third place from the early break.
The leaders race up the final climb of the day (Image credit: Getty Images)
James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
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