Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling) charged away from breakaway companion Natnael Tesfazion (Movistar) on the final city circuit in Cesenatico and won the Memorial Marco Pantani in Italy on Saturday.
Tesfazion was caught and passed by in the final 100 metres by Alexandre Delettre (TotalEnergies) as the duo secured podium spots ahead of a small chase group.
Storer and Tesfazion joined forces after the multiple climbing circuits, having made a selection from a dozen riders with 40km to go on the final pass across Longiano. Once the duo were clear for the final 25km, it was Storer who saved enough fuel to ignite a final attack and claim his fourth victory of the season.
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“It looks like Italy is bringing me luck this year. We really wanted to win with the team today after a good week," Storer said in a team statement.
"But we had to figure out how to beat [Isaac] del Toro, seeing his top shape at the moment. Our DS made a tactic that we perfectly followed.”
Del Toro went into the Italian one-day race with a string of three victories, with Storer finishing second to the Mexican rider at Giro della Toscana, and teammate Marc Hirschi next best in seventh and sixth, respectively, at the other two races, GP Industria & Artigianato and Coppa Sabatini.
The 22nd edition of Memorial Marco Pantani began with light winds and no rain in sight from the coastline in Cesenatico.
Three opening circuits with the Sogliano climb led to the more punchy Longiano circuits, then the fast final 40 kilometres of the 195.1-kilometre one-day Italian contest.
With 65km to go, the race had been blown to pieces, with 40 riders remaining in the peloton with one final pass of the Roncofreddo and Longiano climbs approaching.
Across the climbs and on the flatter territory back to Cesenatico, 12 riders moved away: Marc Hirschi and Michael Storer (both Tudor Pro Cycling), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPOst), Movistar trio Natnael Tesfazion, Lorenzo Milesi, Davide Formolo, Lorenzo Finn (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Diego Ulissi (XDS AstanPiganzolia), Davide Pignzoli (Team Polti VisitMalta), Alexandre Delettre (TotalEnergies) and Nicolò Garibbo (UKYO) were in the first group after the climbs.
With 30km to go, the mountains were done and Tesfazion and Storer were on the attack, taking with them a 1:15 advantage on the group behind. Another 15km, they held the same margin to chasers Carapaz, Hirschi, Cepeda, Milesi, Finn, Yannis Voisard (Tudor Pro Cycling), Alan Jouseaume (TotalEnergies) and Kyrylo Tsarenko (Team Solution Tech-Vini Fantini) and Delettre giving chase solo.
Delettre had 35 seconds to make up with 5km to go, and behind him Del Toro took off with Milesi and Formolo, another 15 seconds back.
With 4km to go on the final city circuit, Storer put in a huge acceleration around a series of road furniture to a surprise attack on Tesfazion, and he quickly dropped the Eritrean rider and pushed on to victory.
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