Mohoric and Vuillermoz complete podium from explosive sprint
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Ivan Garcia Cortina of Movistar Team celebrates his first victory of 2022(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Leading the peloton are James Knox of QuickStep-AlphaVinyl and Christopher Juul Jensen of Team BikeExchange-Jayco(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish of QuickStep-AlphaVinyl in the peloton during 198km one-day race from Omegna to Beinasco(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Matteo Trentin of UAE Team Emirates takes time to converse with Elia Viviani of Ineos Grenadiers during one-day Italian race(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers) competes in peloton(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Tim Declercq moves to front of QuickStep-AlphaVinyl efforts(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Breakaway contained Andrea Pietrobon (Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team), Kamil Malecki (Lotto Soudal), Marco Tizza (Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB) and Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar Team) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Kamil Malecki of Lotto Soudal and Matteo Jorgenson of Movistar Team were final riders in the breakaway, but were caught with 32km to go(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Chaser group would catch final two breakaway riders with under 35km to go(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Giulio Ciccone of Trek-Segafredo rides in front of Neilson Powless of EF Education-Easypost in front group(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
View of the peloton at the start. of Gran Piemonte 2022(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
The peloton passing close to the Lake Orta(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Ivan Garcia Cortina of Movistar Team celebrates at finish line as race winner in Beinasco(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Magnus Cort (EF Education-Easypost) crosses the finish in main chase group, 1:26 back(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) is not able to come around winner Ivan Garcia Cortina (Movistar Team) in the sprint at finish line(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Podium celebration (L to R): Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) on second place, race winner Ivan Garcia Cortina (Movistar Team) and Alexis Vuillermoz (Team TotalEnergies) on third place(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Race winner Ivan Garcia Cortina of Movistar Team celebrates at the podium(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Iván García Cortina (Movistar) sprinted to victory at Gran Piemonte, the Spaniard beating Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) and Alexis Vuillermoz (TotalEnergies) in a finish shorn of the top sprint favourites.
García Cortina scored his first win in over two years, proving the quickest finisher from a select group of around 40 riders who had split away from the peloton following the day’s only real difficulty, the climb of Il Pilonetto, at 58km from the finish.
Despite a spirited chase from the likes of Jumbo-Visma and BikeExchange-Jayco, it wasn’t to be for the pure sprinters, with the split group comfortably out front thanks to hard work from Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert in particular.
The Belgian team, along with EF Education-EasyPost, led the way into the final kilometre, though they’d have nothing to show for their efforts at the line as García Cortina jumped on Vuillermoz’s wheel up the left-hand side of the road before blasting past the Frenchman, as well as Mohorič and Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost), who were doing battle on the right.
“It’s my first victory after two years in this team. I feel so happy,” García Cortina said after his win. “It wasn’t a good moment sometimes, but I kept fighting and finally I could get a victory. It’s really nice. We have no problems with the points but it’s still always nice.
“After the last race I was feeling super good. I had the legs. With the climb I knew it can be a tricky part and it could break the group. That happened and then it was full gas. In the sprint, I could do it.
“Not tactical,” he added, referring to the manner of his win. “I was quite far back in the corner but I knew the group wasn’t so big and that I could pass and take the victory.”
How it unfolded
The changeable Gran Piemonte – some years boasting a route for the climbers and others one for the sprinters – was firmly the latter this year, the extended 198km route concluding with another flat finish after last year’s sprint shootout won by Matthew Walls (Bora-Hansgrohe).
However, as the race does year on year, the start and finish towns were refreshed, with a start in Omegna, close to Lago Maggiore in Piemonte’s north, leading to a finish in Beinasco, west of Turin.
A singular major difficulty stood between the sprinters and another chance at victory, the 3.3km, 8% climb of Il Pilonetto at 58km from the line.
Despite the lack of obvious chances for breakaway success, a five-man move nonetheless gave it a go after 5km of racing.
Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar), often seen in the break at the Tour de France, was in the move, the American accompanied out front by Kamil Małecki (Lotto Soudal), Andrea Pietrobon (Eolo-Kometa), Marco Tizza (Bingoal-Pauwels Sauces-WB).
The peloton was fine letting the quartet get away, though Tobias Bayer (Alpecin-Deceuninck) hoped to make it five in the lead, attempting a solo bridging effort.
The Austrian would, however, fall short in his efforts, getting caught 20km into the race during the early hilly section.
It wasn’t long before QuickStep-AlphaVinyl and Jumbo-Visma, riding for the sprint hopes of Mark Cavendish and Olav Kooij, respectively, took over pacemaking duties at the head of the peloton and held the break to an advantage of four minutes or so.
Following the establishment of both the breakaway and the teams in charge of the peloton, there would be little action of note as, for kilometre after kilometre, the riders raced across the flatlands of central Piemonte.
By the time the riders reached the climb at Il Pilonetto, the gap to the break had reached 3:30, and an acceleration on the way up – with Alpecin-Deceuninck and EF Education-EasyPost taking the initiative – took that down further still, to just over a minute.
As the sprint favourites dropped from the peloton, so too did Pietrobon and Tizza, leaving two in the lead as several riders – Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) among them – attempted to get away. The move, and the high pace before it, had split the peloton, with a smaller group of 44 having branched off the front as Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert and Israel-Premier Tech pushed the pace.
Jorgenson and Małecki were duly swept up just outside the 30km to go mark, while back in the second group BikeExchange-Jayco and Jumbo-Visma were among the teams trying to claw back a gap which had grown to 45 seconds.
Despite the strength of the chase, however, there wouldn’t be a regrouping before the finish, and in fact the lead group had only increased their advantage as they hit the final 10km, with EF Education-EasyPost and Bora-Hansgrohe also committed in their work.
The chase group finally called it a day just under 5km from the finish, meaning there’d be a surprise winner on a day suited to the fastmen.
Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert and Education-EasyPost were in charge in the final kilometres despite an attempt to disrupt the situation by Pieter Serry (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl). EF’s Powless took on lead-out duties into the final kilometre before Serry’s teammate Declercq took over.
Powless’ man, impromptu sprinter Bettiol, made the initial jump on the left with Mohorič, but both were powerless against the quick finisher García Cortina, who sped past to secure the third win of his career.
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, joining in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired full-time. Before joining the team, they had written for numerous major publications in the cycling world, including CyclingWeekly and Rouleur.
Dani has reported from the world's top races, including the Tour de France, Road World Championships, and the spring Classics. They have interviewed many of the sport's biggest stars, including Mathieu van der Poel, Demi Vollering, and Remco Evenepoel. Their favourite races are the Giro d'Italia, Strade Bianche and Paris-Roubaix.
