Nizzolo wins Gran Piemonte

Italian champion Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) claimed victory at Gran Piemonte, beating Fernando Gaviria (Etixx-QuickStep) and Daniele Bennati (Tinkoff) in a sprint finish in Agliè.

The victory was Nizzolo’s sixth of the current season and his second in recent weeks following his triumph at the Coppa Bernocchi. Nizzolo will be part of the Italian team at the UCI Road World Championships in Doha next month, where he will split leadership duties with Elia Viviani (Sky).

"It's a great victory because it comes at the end of a race contested at a very high tempo. I'm also happy because I felt great on the climbs,” Nizzolo said. “To be honest, this morning, I didn't feel well – I had fever or something like that but once I started racing, I felt normal. I couldn't ask for better timing, winning a race ahead of the World Championships. Now I know that I can go to Doha with great motivation."

Some 40 riders were still in contention come the slightly uphill finishing sprint in Agliè, where Nizzolo produced a fine acceleration inside the last 200 metres to lead into the gentle final curves to claim the honours ahead of Gaviria and Bennati.

Juan José Lobato (Movistar) took fourth place, while the on-form Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani-CSF) – winner of the Tre Valli Varesine, Coppa Agostoni and Coppa Sabatini in recent weeks – had to settle for fifth.

Philippe Gilbert (BMC), Ben Swift (Sky) and Filippo Pozzato (Wilier-Southeast) all placed in the top ten but were never in a position to discommode Nizzolo and Gaviria.

The race got off to a rapid opening on leaving the start in Diano d’Alba, with a group of 38 riders – including Gilbert, Swift and Bennati – breaking clear in the early kilometres, with the Italian national team and Wilier-Southeast forced to lead the chase behind once the gap nudged towards two minutes.

After two hours of racing, the average speed was a brisk 48.95kph, but the break’s lead was inside 40 seconds, and the unity of the group fragmented soon afterwards. After a spate of attacking, Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis) went clear at the end of the race, and opted to press on alone rather than wait for company with a shade under 100 kilometres remaining.

There was a détente in the peloton as the remnants of the early break were caught, and Rossetto was able to stretch his advantage out to a maximum of 4:40 before the sprinters’ teams began to wind the pace up once again on the run-in towards Agliè.

By the climb of Alice Superiore, Rossetto’s lead was already down to just two minutes, and the work of BMC on the ascent made further inroads into his advantage, and also reduced the main peloton to just 40 or so riders.

Rossetto stuck gamely to his task in the final 20 kilometres even though there was a sense of inevitability about his fate. 10 kilometres from home, his lead was just 19 seconds, but it wasn’t until Etixx-QuickStep took up the reins on the approach to Agliè that the gap was eventually snapped shut.

After Rossetto was swept up with two kilometres remaining, the scene was set for a sprint finish, and it Nizzolo, riding for the Italian national team, who conjured up the winning effort.

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