Alexey Lutsenko wins Memorial Marco Pantani ahead of Hirschi and Sivakov

Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) won the Memorial Marco Pantani on Saturday in a sprint from a reduced peloton in Cesenatico. Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) crossed the line in second and Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) took third.

The trio were part of a six-rider group that formed a breakaway in the second half of the race, along with Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Simon Yates (Jayco Alula) and  Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates). With 50km to go, the six riders had a 1:30 advantage over a chase group. 

Headed to the fourth and final pass of the Logaino climb (1.1 km at 7.6% average), Sivakov attacked, with only Lutsenko and Hirschi following. The trio worked together on the final flat 20km into Cesenatico and Lutsenko powered to his sixth victory of the season.

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"On the final lap at the steepest part it was Marc Hirschi, who attacked, and me and Pavel Sivakov followed this attack. Well, we remained in three and we continued working hard to the finish, not allowing the chasers to bridge back to our group. In the final I tried to attack, but also my rivals tried to anticipate the sprint, however we arrived all together in Cesenatico and I just did my best in sprint, taking this nice victory," Lutsenko said about his win.

The 193.3km one-day race took place around Cesenatico on the Adriatic coast, the hometown of Marco Pantani, which is part of a string of late-season Italian Classics.

The 2022 edition was cancelled due to extreme wind and rainy conditions. While organisers tried to shorten the route to 52km, the weather conditions were deemed to be severe enough to cancel the race altogether.

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