Evenepoel solos to victory at Coppa Bernocchi

Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) added another solo exhibition to his repertoire on Monday, winning the Coppa Bernocchi by almost two minutes.

The 21-year-old Belgian, who placed fifth at the Giro dell'Emilia two days prior, bounced back in the latest autumn Italian one-day race to underline his form ahead of Saturday's Il Lombardia.

In soaking wet conditions in northern Italy, Evenepoel got himself into a high-class six-man breakaway that only formed after more than 60km of frantic racing, before leaving them all behind some 31km from the line.

On a largely flat run-in, his advantage grew all the way to the finishing straight, where he gave a thumbs-up to the cameras before raising his arms wide as he coasted across the line.

Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) took second place at 1:50, outsprinting Evenepoel's teammate Fausto Masnada as Deceuninck-QuickStep put two riders on the podium.

Samuele Battistella (Astana-Premier Tech) and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) trailed home half a minute later, followed by the final member of that breakaway group, Antonio Puppio (Qhubeka-NextHash).

The peloton, which was summoned to a halt to allow the rampaging Evenepoel to lap them on the final circuit, eventually finished more than 10 minutes down, with Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates) taking the sprint for seventh place.

The Coppa Bernocchi took place over 197km, with a flat opening 50km followed by six laps of a hillier 16.8km circuit and, finally, three laps of a flat 5.8km finishing loop around Legnano.

The peloton was still in one piece as they hit the first circuit but the twin climbs of San Pancrazio - 0.5km at 8.6 per cent - and Piccolo Stelvio - 1.5km at 6.5 per cent - combined to split the race. Evenepoel was once again aggressive from range and drew out a quality six-man group.

Over the subsequent five laps, they established an advantage of five minutes which, as they moved on towards the final circuit, was sufficient for them to share the spoils.

The question was which one of them would take top spot but Evenepoel quickly answered that with an acceleration on the undulating terrain ahead of the finishing circuit. He was quickly away and only sailed further into the distance.

He took his lead out to a whopping 2:30 before Masnada, who had been a passenger in the group behind, attacked in the final kilometres. Covi went with him and ultimately dispatched him in the sprint for second place, but this was a one-man show and a statement of intent ahead of the final Monument of the season.