Gran Piemonte – or the Giro del Piemonte, as it used to be called – was a moveable feast for much of its early history before settling more definitively on an Autumn date in the 1970s. By the 1980s, it had moved to its familiar, pre-Tour of Lombardy slot as part of the Trittico d’Autunno with Milano-Torino.
The route of Gran Piemonte has changed constantly over the years. Last year’s event, won by Egan Bernal, featured a summit finish at Oropa. This year’s race, meanwhile, is a hilly 187km trek through the rolling hills of the Langhe from Santo Stefano Belbo to Barolo.
The gruppo is rolling through the neutralised zone in Santo Stefano Belbo. They are due to reach kilometre zero at 13.55 local time.
Santo Stefano Belbo is the birthplace of writer Cesare Pavese and the (unnamed) setting of his 1949 masterpiece The Moon and the Bonfires. The town is, like so many in this corner of the world, a wine-producing centre.
-182km
Van der Poel's Alpecin-Fenix squad are patrolling the bunch at the start of this race, and they snuff out a putative move from Petr Rikunov (Gazprom-Rusvelo).
Today's parcours is as demanding as it is beautiful. The Langhe produces some of the world's finest wines and the hills of this region lend themselves readily to a race for puncheurs. The route ripples across the hillscape for the afternoon on roads that will be familiar from the Barolo time trial on the 2014 Giro d'Italia. The race reaches Barolo for the first time with 88km to go, and tackles two laps of a 44km circuit that includes punchy climbs to Monforte d'Alba and La Morra as well as the drag to the finish in Barolo.
-175km
Scotson and Honoré stretch their lead out to 20 seconds, but the peloton doesn't seem keen to allow this duo much leeway. CCC and Gazprom-Rusvelo are both prominent in pursuit.
Honoré's teammate Remco Evenepoel is an absentee this afternoon but the Belgische wonderkind is in Italy ahead of his Monument debut at Il Lombardia on Saturday. The 20-year-old has a 1.000 batting average in stage races thus far in 2020, going 4-0 in the Vuelta a San Juan, Volta ao Algarve, Vuelta a Burgos and Tour de Pologne. On the final day in Poland, Sporza put it to Evenepoel that he was a favourite for Il Lombardia. “Probably," Evenepoel said. "I feel good and I still have a week to recuperate and explore the course." We have all been warned. Read more here.
-164km
The race has finally settled into something of a pattern. Rosskopf and Walsleben have bridged across to Scotson and Honoré to make a quartet in front, while the intensity has relented considerably in the peloton.
Situation
There is the minor matter of a bike race taking place in France this afternoon, too. Daniel Benson has live updates from stage 1 of the Critérium du Dauphiné here.
-157km
It's been a busy week of transfer news and there was more this morning when Israel Start-Up Nation announced the arrival of Michael Woods from EF Pro Cycling in 2021. The Canadian made a swift recovery from breaking his femur at Paris-Nice in March and returned to action at Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo in recent weeks. (He also won a stage of the Virtual Tour de France before the real action resumed). Woods sits out Gran Piemonte today but he will hope to be in the mix in the finale of Il Lombardia on Saturday. Read more here.
-147km
Astana are taking a controlling interest at the head of the peloton, no doubt with man of the moment Aleksandr Vlasov in mind. The Russian impressed in winning the Dénivelé Challenge last week, having been the last man to stay with Egan Bernal and Pavel Sivakov on the Col de Beyrede at the Route d'Occitanie three days earlier. A native of Vyborg near the Finnish border, like Evgeni Berzin and Viatcheslav Ekimov, Vlasov won the under-23 Giro in 2018 ahead of Joao Almeida and Robert Stannard. He joined Astana this season after two years at Gazprom-Rusvelo, and already shone in February with a stage win at the Tour de La Provence. The 24-year-old is an obvious contender this afternoon, but also at Il Lombardia and next week's Giro dell'Emilia, which finishes atop the climb to San Luca above Bologna.
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It will be fascinating to see what Mathieu van der Poel can achieve this afternoon after two subdued displays at Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo. He hasn't looked close to his startling 2019 vintage so far in this rearranged season and, human nature being what it is, he will surely be smarting after watching his long-term cyclo-cross rival Wout van Aert carrying off the spoils over the past two weekends. "I haven't yet looked at course extensively, I hope to play a role at the front," Van der Poel said earlier this week. He will also line out at Il Lombardia on Saturday as something of an outsider: the Dutchman's main hope of winning a Monument in 2020 will surely come in October - assuming the season is still ongoing - with the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
Vincenzo Nibali was a late addition to the Trek-Segafredo squad today as a replacement for his brother Antonio. The World Championships and Giro d'Italia are the centrepieces of Nibali's 2020 season, though we expect news today regarding the possible cancellation of the Aigle-Martigny Worlds, perhaps before Gran Piemonte finishes. Nibali will be a favourite at Il Lombardia this weekend, when he seeks a third win, which would put him level with Henri Pélissier, Costante Girardengo, Gaetano Belloni, Gino Bartali, Seán Kelly and Damiano Cunego on the roll of honour.
Nibali and Trek-Segafredo were prominent at Milan-San Remo - as they had been at the Gran Trittico Lombardo - but after finishing 23rd, the Sicilian conceded that he didn't have enough racing miles in his legs to make an impact on the Poggio. He will hope that Gran Piemonte can help to sharpen his steel ahead of Il Lombardia. "My only regret is not having raced more because that would have helped me reacted better," Nibali said on Saturday. "It was difficult to do any better in just my fourth race, considering my characteristics." Stephen Farrand has the full story here.
-121km
The race is approaching Alba, the ‘capital’ of the Langhe, famed for truffles and towers, as well as Ferrero and Beppe Fenoglio. The town was immortalised in Fenoglio’s novels and stories about the partisan life in the Langhe during World War II, perhaps most notably in the short story ‘The Twenty-Tree Days of the City of Alba,’ which recounts the short-lived Repubblica Partigiana di Alba, when partisans briefly expelled the town’s fascist garrison. “Alba was conquered by two thousand people on October 10 and two hundred lost it on the November 2 of the year 1944,” reads the famous opening line.
-114km
While the bulk of Jumbo-Visma's A-team are in France for the Dauphiné, George Bennett has travelled to Italy this week to ride Gran Piemonte and Il Lombardia. The New Zealander was an outstanding performer at the Tour de l'Ain and will be a very deluxe domestique at the Tour de France, but he has been handed the opportunity to chase some personal success in Italy this week. His best finish at Il Lombardia was 10th in 2018, but his sparkling form in France last week suggests that he will be a real dangerman both today and on Saturday.
-100km
Breaking: the Aigle-Martigny World Championships have been cancelled as the Swiss Federal Council extended its ban on public gatherings of more than 1,000 people until October 1. UCI president David Lappartient previously stated that there was 'no plan B' though La Gazzetta dello Sport this morning floated the prospect of the elite men's and women's road races being held in Italy, either in Emilia-Romagna or the Veneto on September 26-27. We expect a statement from the UCI later today, but the organising committee in Switzerland has confirmed that Aigle-Martigny will not host the 2020 Worlds. Read more here.
-89km
In France, a Belgian rider on a Dutch team has just won the opening stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné. You can probably guess who. A report, results and pictures will follow here.
This 44km finishing circuit features the long and steady rise towards Monforte d’Alba, the shorter ascent to La Morra and then the kick up to the finish in Barolo, where the gradient hits 9%.
On the first passage through the finish line in Barolo, the four escapees had a lead of 5:40 over the peloton.
The UCI has said that it is searching for an alternative venue for the World Championships in Europe and added that it will make a final decision on the location by September 1.
-85km
Astana and Jumbo-Visma have begun to make their presence felt at the head of the peloton. The intensity ratchets up a notch or two and the break's lead drops accordingly. 5:10 the gap.
-75km
The intensity continues to rise in the peloton and more seconds flake away from the break's advantage, which now stands at 4:43.
Jumbo-Visma are prominent on behalf of George Bennett, who had this to say at the start in Santo Stefano Belbo: “I have the freedom today, so hopefully the course is hard enough, I’m not really sure. I’ll try. It could be a group coming to the finish. I’m not sure the climbs are long enough but when it’s this hot, anything could happen."
-65km
Trek-Segafredo, Jumbo-Visma and Astana are all putting men at the head of the peloton on this finishing circuit. Van der Poel's Alpecin-Fenix are spared that duty by Walsleben's presence in the break.
Mathieu van der Poel is looking to emulate his father Adri, who won the Giro del Piemonte, as it was then known, in 1987. “It’s pretty hard but normally in good conditions, I should be able to survive this," Van der Poel Jr. told the host broadcaster at the start in Santo Stefano Belbo. "In the few races I did, I was not in super condition, but not bad at all. But I feel it’s going better and better, and today maybe I can go for the win. It would be good for me to go with a group of 30 riders to the finish, but it will be hard with the conditions. The bunch could split pretty fast.”
-59km
The Giro del Piemonte has taken place just about all over Piedmont (and even in Valle d'Aosta) over the years, but this route through the verdant hills of the Langhe may be the most aesthetically pleasing yet. The next 55km will tell us if the sporting merits of the course match the visual effect.
Astana and Jumbo-Visma are assembled en masse at the head of the bunch, while Trek-Segafredo are also contributing to the pursuit of the break, which is 3:40 clear.
The break is tackling the climb of La Morra and it seems that Scotson had a mechanical issue, but he is latching back up to Honoré, Walsleben and Rosskopf.
-53km
Callum Scotson sits up and rolls to a halt at the roadside. He seems to be suffering from cramp and that is the end of his stint off the head of the peloton. He stops again in a bid to stretch his calves, but this might be the end of his race altogether.
Callum Scotson has abandoned the race, leaving three men out in front: Mikkel Frølich Honoré (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Philipp Walsleben (Alpecin-Fenix) and Joey Rosskopf (CCC Team).
-50km
The riders will get another sight of the final kick up to Barolo in a couple of kilometres as they complete their first complete lap of the finishing circuit.
-46km
Jacopo Mosca (Trek-Segafredo) attacks from the peloton at the beginning of the climb to Barolo.
-44km
Mosca, meanwhile, has been pegged back by the peloton on the climb towards Barolo.
Mosca leads the peloton through the bell, 2:15 down on the break.
Situation
This is what the closing kilometres in Barolo look like, though before that, attackers will surely look to forge clear on the ascents to Montforte d'Alba with 24km to go and La Morra with 7km remaining.
-39km
Rosskopf, Honore and Walsleben are still collaborating well at the head of the race, 2:18 clear of the bunch. The American has looked the strongman of the group in recent kilometres. Jumbo-Visma and Astana, meanwhile, continue to pile on the pressure behind, with the a reduced bunch strung out behind them. It certainly looks as though a few riders opted to climb off on reaching Barolo with 44km to go.
Umberto Marengo (Vini Zabu-KTM) is in action this afternoon in what is a local race for the Piedmont rider. We caught with Marengo during the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy, when he dedicated himself to delivering food and supplies to the housebound.
A flurry of accelerations in the bunch at Dogliani. Gazprom kicked off the attacking, then Michael Albasini followed up. Vincenzo Nibali was also tracking the moves. The situation has been diffused for now and the bunch is back together, but we can surely expect more aggression from this reduced peloton of 70 or so riders.
-31.5km
Situation
Into the final 30km for Honore, Walsleben and Rosskopf, who are beginning the gentle ascent towards Montforte d'Alba with a lead of 1:39 over the bunch.
-28km
Salvatore Puccio is also prominent now for Team Ineos, who have Gianni Moscon, Ivan Sosa and Ben Swift in their ranks this afternoon.
Jumbo-Visma still have four riders around their leader George Bennett near the front of this peloton on the climb towards Monforte d'Alba. Mathieu van der Poel is moving up on Petr Vakoc's wheel.
-27km
The break's lead is starting to melt steadily now as the pace ratchets up further in the bunch. The skies are decidedly overcast and leaden, but they will hope to finish before the heavens open...
Ivan Sosa is tucked onto Gianni Moscon's wheel in the main peloton, which perahsp indicates the Ineos hierarchy in the finale.
-25km
-24km
Salvatore Puccio sets the tempo in the peloton on the haul to Monforte d'Alba, with Jacopo Mosca on his wheel. Jumbo-Visma and Astana are positioned en masse behind them.
Mosca takes over at the head of the bunch in the cobbled heart of Monforte as they face into the descent.
-21km
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Rosskopf attempts to breathe life into the break with a long turn on the front. Honore and Walsleben are still with him, but their gap on the bunch is dwindling on the approach to the climb to La Morra.
Manuele Boaro comes back to the head of the bunch to take a turn for Astana. The gap is 45 seconds with 15km remaining.
-13km
RAI reports that there are some drops of rain falling at the finish in Barolo, but the expected shower might just about hold off until this race is over.
-12km
Boaro puts in a long, long turn at the front of the peloton before swinging over for Puccio. 31 seconds the deficit to the three escapees.
-10km
The gap drops to 20 seconds... The break won't survive the climb of La Morra, where we can expect fireworks in the peloton...
-9km
UAE Team Emirates take over as the climb of La Morra begins in earnest. Jumbo-Visma are also prominent. The bunch is just 10 seconds behind the leaders.
Walsleben is dropped by the break. Rosskopf and Honore are 9 seconds ahead of the closing bunch, which is being led by Jumbo-Visma.
-8.5km
Chris Harper sets the pace on the front for Jumbo-Visma, with Dries Deveyns (Deceuninck-QuickStep) on his wheel. This tempo is stringing out the front group and serving to discourage any attacks.
Vincenzo Nibali lurks with menace in fifth place...
-7.7km
Nibali swings off, and now George Bennett hits the front. He accelerates from the front and only Gianni Moscon can hold his wheel. This duo has opened a gap over the fragmented front group on the climb of La Morra...
-7km
Van der Poel catches and passes Moscon at the top of the climb to La Morra, and he chases Bennett over the other side.
-6km
Van der Poel and Moscon have been joined by four other riders in pursuit of Bennett, who has stretched out his advantage definitively on this descent...
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-2km
Alessandro De Marchi sets off in lone pursuit of Bennett as rain falls heavily over the front of the race. The chasing group is expanding to 12 or so riders, but they are getting no closer to the flying Bennett.
-1km
George Bennett is in the big ring on the gentler lower slopes, and he doesn't look like losing his momentum when the gradient bites.
George Bennett climbs out of the saddle in the final 400m, as rain hammers on Barolo. Simon Geschke leads the chasing group and the gap is closing...
Diego Ulissi rips clear of the chasing group on the steepest gradient and the Italian is closing rapidly on Bennett...
Ulissi is within touching distance of Bennett, but the Italian is running out of road...
George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) wins Gran Piemonte.
Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) took second place, while Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) won the sprint for third.
Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana) took fourth, ahead of Simon Geschke (CCC Team), Alex Aranburu (Astana) and Dries Devenyns (Deceuninck-QuickStep).
Robert Stannard (Mitchelton-Scott), Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafred) and Attila Valter (CCC Team) completed the top 10.
Result
That's the second win of Bennett's professional career after the general classification of 2017 Tour of California. It is also Jumbo-Visma's second win of the afternoon after Wout van Aert's victory on the opening stage of the Criterium du Dauphine. It is also Jumbo-Visma's seventh victory since August 1. A remarkable purple patch.
George Bennett speaks: "I only had two days left this season where I could ride for myself; today and Saturday, and then I go back to being a domestique. On our team, we have the best riders in the world, so I had an opportunity now, on this team, and I really had to take it. I’m really happy that I could do it today. I told the boys that I wanted to try and they really did a wonderful job. I’m really happy.
Mathieu van der Poel wasn't able to make it across to Bennett over the top of La Morra, but he will draw some encouragement from his third-place finish in Barolo after coming away empty-handed from Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo. "It was a very hard final with a lot of climbers today," Van der Poel said afterwards. "I think I did a good job on the last climb to keep my own pace but in the final we didn’t come close enough to sprint for the win.It was again very hot today and the pace was very high the whole day because the breakaway was quite strong.I felt good but not super. It’s getting better and better."
Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) reacts to his second-place finish, just behind George Bennett: "When you get this close to winning and you can't take it, you are left with regret. The team was fantastic, they were close to me in key moments trying to close the gap on Bennett after I tried to fight back on the last climb, having not had the legs to follow him. My teammates were great in reducing the gap, then on the last climb I went from very far out to try to bridge across, but I didn't make it."
Thanks for following our live coverage of Gran Piemonte this afternoon. A full report, results and pictures are available here. We'll be back with live coverage from the Critérium du Dauphiné tomorrow and we will also have live coverage on Saturday of the week's main event, Il Lombardia.
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