Aleksandr Vlasov wins Giro dell'Emilia

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Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana Pro Team) continued his sparkling run of form with a victory in the Giro dell’Emilia launching a searing attack on the final haul up the climb of San Luca above Bologna.

The Russian punched his way clear of an elite group of contenders with 1.5km of the portico-lined ascent remaining and he proceeded to catch and pass lone escapee João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) with 600m to go.

Vlasov never relented, and he pressed on to win by 9 seconds from Almeida, while Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) beat Eddie Dunbar (Team Ineos) to third place, a further 9 seconds back. Andrea Bagioli, who had helped to tee up his teammate Almeida’s earlier attack, took fifth ahead of Il Lombardia winner Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo).

As ever, the succession of laps over the stiff ascent to the Sanctuario di San Luca had whittled the peloton down to its bare bones, and with 20km remaining only the remnants of the day’s early break and the select cade of pre-race favourites remained in contention.

Almeida launched what long looked like a racing-winning attack at the beginning of the penultimate lap when he slipped away from the Nibali-Fuglsang group shortly after his teammate Bagioli’s earlier effort had been reeled in.

The Portuguese youngster has impressed everywhere he has raced in 2020, and he looked a likely winner when he blasted past the last two survivors of the early break – the Vini Zabu-KTM duo of Giovanni Visconti and Andrea Garosio – on the penultimate ascent of the San Luca.

As Almeida took the bell at the summit, he had a lead of 35 seconds over the chasers with just 9km to race, and he managed that advantage well on the final lap of the finishing circuit. By the time he passed through the Arco del Meloncello for the last time with 2km remaining, he still had half a minute in hand on an eight-man chasing group.

Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) looked to chip away at Almeida’s gap on the lower slopes but neither his forcing nor a fleeting acceleration from his leader Nibali made greats inroads into the deficit.

With 1400m remaining, however, Vlasov unleashed his effort, and only Bagioli could initially follow the Russian. Bagioli had to relent as the gradient stiffened further at the Curva delle Orfanelle, while out in front, Almeida’s fatigue was increasingly obvious.

Vlasov was within touching distance of the Portuguese youngster beneath the flamme rouge, and he inched past him with a shade over 600 metres remaining. From there, the result was never in doubt.

Like Evgeni Berzin and Viatcheslav Ekimov, Vlasov is a native of Vyborg near the Finnish border, and he signalled his ability by winning the under-23 Giro d’Italia in 2018 before moving from Gazprom-Rusvelo to the WorldTour at the start of this season.

This was Vlasov’s third victory of 2020 and his second this month after his triumph in the Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge. On Saturday, he played a key role in helping his teammate Fuglsang to victory at Il Lombardia, where he also had the wherewithal to claim the third step of the podium for himself.

Vlasov lost his Russian title in the intervening period, incidentally, as the national championships were held in his absence over the weekend, but on this remarkable evidence, the 24-year-old will expect to add more lines to his palmarès before the year is out.

How it unfolded

Normally fought out beneath falling leaves and fading October sunlight, the Giro dell’Emilia shifted to an August date on the revised UCI calendar. The event saw many of the protagonists of Saturday’s Il Lombardia line up for the last in the current sequence of one-day races on Italian roads.

In keeping with the tenor of events from Strade Bianche onwards, there was an aggressive start to affairs after the peloton left Casalecchio di Reno, with Fuglsang among those active on the day’s first ascent of Montemaggiore.

The race eventually settled into a pattern after the ascent of Mongardino, and after 50km, a group of eight riders forged clear: Danilo Wyss (NTT Pro Cycling), Giovanni Visconti and Andrea Garosio (Vini Zabu-KTM), Philipp Walsleben (Alpecin-Fenix), Manuel Senni (Bardiani-CSF Faizanè), Felix Dopchie (Bingoal-Wallonie Bruxelles), Oscar Quiroz (Colombia Tierra de Atletas) and Dario Puccioni (Work Service Dinatek Vega).

The group combined well to establish a maximum lead of seven minutes and they still had 4:30 in hand by the team they hit the San Luca for the first time with 40km remaining. The break splintered under Visconti’s force on the lower slopes before his teammate Garosio forged clear over the summit. The two Vini Zabu-KTM riders would link up again at the front one lap later, when Visconti bridged across on the San Luca, later to be joined by Walsleben.

Behind, meanwhile, the aggression of Eddie Dunbar (Team Ineos) was helping to whittle the peloton down to a very select group of favourites, with Vlasov, Fuglsang, Harald Tejada (Astana), Nibali, Ciccone, Almeida, Bagioli and Ulissi joining the Irishman in pursuit of the escapees with three laps remaining.

With two laps to go, Visconti and Garosio rid themselves of Walsleben, but their lead over the chasers was down to less than a minute. Bagioli’s attack on the San Luca reduced the gap still further and brought the chasers ever closer. When he was pinned back with 16km remaining, Almeida seized the initiative, catching and passing the Vini Zabu tandem on the penultimate ascent of the San Luca.

It looked like the winning move, but the final haul up the San Luca gave the on-form Vlasov a chance to claw his way back into contention.