Primož Roglič added a third victory in the Giro dell'Emilia to his palmares, attacking to leave Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) in his wake on the Colle della Guardia di San Luca.
On the same day he announced his departure from Jumbo-Visma against the backdrop of the team’s proposed merger with Soudal-Quickstep, Roglič flew to the finish with plenty of room to celebrate.
“It's an iconic old race, with the San Luca climb, I love it, and it's always great to finish it off,” said Roglič. "It was super hard, at the end I just went for it and I had the legs to finish it off."
At 204.1 kilometres in length with two significant climbs mid-race and a punchy closing circuit ending on a sharp ascent in San Luca, the Giro dell'Emilia served as something of a dress rehearsal for Il Lombardia and attracted many of the top names.
The day's early breakaway was reduced to six riders at the start of the Monte Nonascoso after 126 kilometres of racing.
Alex Bogna (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Cristian Scaroni (Astana), Jacopo Mosca (Lidl-Trek), Floris De Tier (Bingoal-WB), Mattia Bais (Eolo Kometa), Emanuele Ansaloni (Technipes) were the six survivors after Matteo Montefiori (Technipes) and Marcel Camprubí (Q36.5) lost touch.
On the climb, Scaroni and Bais attacked as the lead came down to 45 seconds but couldn't hold off the chase and, as they came into the four closing circuits with 41km to go, they were caught.
The pace heading into the first trip up the brutal San Luca climb was nearly a full-on lead-out but few were keen to attack so early. It fell to Alejandro Osorio (GW Shimano Sidermec) to launch first.
He was quickly reeled in as Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) sped past on the steepest section. Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla) bridged across then dropped Pacher on the second ascent.
Fausto Masnada (Soudal-Quickstep) was next to launch as Harper was 30 seconds up the road but couldn't make it. He was overtaken by Giovanni Aleotti (Bora-Hansgrohe) on the next ascent with 20km to go while Harper still had a 22-second lead, but he punctured on the climb.
On the penultimate climb, Harper had a dozen seconds in hand when Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) surged, stringing out the elite group of surviving chasers and bringing them past the Australian.
Yates led the select group of nine over the penultimate summit for Pogačar with Enric Mas (Movistar), Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe), Richard Carapaz (EF-EasyPost), Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) and Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) in tow.
On the final climb to the finish, Vlasov tried to surge but was easily shut down by Adam Yates and nine of the world's best climbers fought it out to the top.
Coming into the final kilometre, Pogačar launched a sustained acceleration on the steepest section, reducing the group to Carapaz, Roglič and Mas but the pace eased as the gradient slackened and the rest of the group rejoined.
Roglič attacked into the final 300 metres and Pogačar had no answer.
Results
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