Isaac del Toro added a 15th win of the year to his palmarès at Gran Piemonte, soloing home over the final climb of the hilly semi-Classic to add victory number 92 of the season for his UAE Team Emirates-XRG team.
The 21-year-old jumped from the front of the peloton 19.8km from the finish line, and spent the next 2km of the closing Casteletto d'Erro ascent bridging across to the break before leaving everyone behind before the summit, then riding the final 17.7km alone.
22 minutes later, Del Toro celebrated yet another victory for his team, while Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek) and Marc Hirschi (Tudor), the last men with him, worked to stay away for the remaining podium places.
The duo had held the gap to the solo leader at 30 seconds for much of the run-in to the finish, but shed a further 10 seconds on the final run. Still, they easily fended off the larger chase group behind to sprint it out for second place.
In the end, it was Hirschi who prevailed, jumping from Mollema's wheel to come through and take it, 39 seconds down on Del Toro. Further back still, it was Fabio Christen (Q36.5) who beat Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) to the finish in the sprint for fourth place, 1:08 down.
"When you know a little bit more the climb, it's easier in your mind what you want to do. It was really tough to try, but thanks to the teammates and everything they put a lot of confidence in me, and I didn't have anything to lose, so I tried from the bottom," Del Toro said after his win.
"When the breakaway has that much time and we don't have more riders in the group because they did the job the whole day, I just tried to go as fast as possible on the steepest part, which was the beginning. I tried to go all-in, and if I blow up, I blow up – I have nothing more.
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"This year so far has been better than we expected as a team and for myself. You always have your own pressure, and you want to always be better and professional. This year so far has been super good, so I don't know what to say. It's just incredible. I know it's not so normal, but I know it's just unbelievable for me."
How it unfolded
The Italian autumn Classics continued on Thursday with the 109th Gran Piemonte, a 179km run from Dogliani to Acqui Terme. The race, run south of Turin in Italy's northern region of Piemonte, would see the peloton tackle 2,700 metres of climbing with four major ascents along the way.
Riders would have to contend with Bric della Forma (4.4km at 6.3%), Rocchetta Palafea (2.7km at 8.4%), and two ascents of Casteletto d'Erro (6.1km at 5.2%), the second of which lay 14km from the finish line.
It would take just over 20km for the break of the day to be established as multiple attacks flew at the head of the race early on. A group of six riders got clear, with Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) joined in the move by Jan Tratnik (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Jasha Sütterlin (Jayco-AlUla), Matteo Trentin (Tudor), Ådne Holter (Uno-X Mobility), and Odd Christian Eiking (Unibet Tietema Rockets).
The sextet raced to a two-minute advantage over the peloton as UAE Team Emirates-XRG predictably settled into the role of controlling the situation behind.
They held the group together for much of the day's running time, well past the halfway mark and into the last 60km. At that point, as the riders entered the large closing circuit just before the first ascent of Casteletto d'Erro, Trentin, Sütterlin, and Eiking dropped back, leaving Hermans, Tratnik, and Holter still out in front.
Hermans, Tratnik, and Holter out in front as the day's breakaway (Image credit: Getty Images)
Movistar and XDS-Astana joined UAE at the front for the run to the climb, bringing back the dropped trio with 52km to go.
On the way up, moves at the front of the peloton saw Pablo Torres launch his UAE teammate Del Toro, putting pressure on. The Mexican youngster was joined by a host of other big names at the head of affairs, including defending champion Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) and the Ineos Grenadiers pairing of Egan Bernal and Filippo Ganna.
Beyond a brief foray from Jardi van der Lee (EF Education-EasyPost) and Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla), however, there were no major attacks in the peloton. The pair were brought back at the 48km mark, leaving Hermans, Tratnik, and Holter still out front 50 seconds up the road.
A counter-attack was quickly launched, however, with Van der Lee again on the move and joined by Movistar duo Einer Rubio and Lorenzo Milesi, plus Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek), Marc Hirschi (Tudor), and Ion Izagirre (Cofidis). The group passed the finish line at 32km to go, 40 seconds down on the breakaway survivors and 30 seconds up on the peloton.
The group pushed on over the flat run back to Casteletto d'Erro, closing to within 10 seconds of the leaders – now just Tratnik and Hermans – while the peloton raced a further 30 seconds back.
Del Toro was quick to make a move from the peloton. He left any prospective rivals behind with seeming ease, bridging across to and dropping the attackers before reaching Mollema and Hirschi at the front in less than 2km of climbing.
17.7km from the end of the race and 3.5km from the top of the climb, Del Toro jumped again, casting Mollema and Hirschi aside to go solo towards Acqui Terme.
Del Toro attacks to drop Mollema and Hirschi (Image credit: Getty Images)
Mollema and Hirschi continued to work together in the chase, racing 30 seconds down on Del Toro and 30 up on the larger chase group. The pair dropped seconds on the run to the finish, falling within 20 seconds' reach of the peloton inside the final 5km.
However, the work put in behind wasn't enough to drag back Mollema and Hirschi, with the pair managing to hold off the chase and fight it out over second place in Acqui Terme. As Del Toro celebrated his victory well up the road, Hirschi came out on top in the sprint as Mollema rounded out the podium.
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor, later being hired full-time. Her favourite races include Strade Bianche, the Tour de France Femmes, Paris-Roubaix, and Tro-Bro Léon.
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