Uran wins Milano-Torino

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Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac) won the 2017 Milano-Torino, attacking on the second and final ascent of Superga before holding off a late onslaught from Adam Yates (Orica-Scott) to celebrate a solo victory at the Basilica overlooking Turin.

Yates crossed the line 10 seconds behind the Colombian, with Fabio Aru (Astana) finishing a further 10 seconds back to round out the podium.

Uran, who finished third here last year, produced a brace of powerful accelerations to go clear from a six-man group that had formed on the early slopes of the 4.9km climb, which was tackled twice in the finale of the autumn classic.

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As Aru, David Gaudu (FDJ), Rudy Molard (FDJ), Egan Bernal (Androni), and Mickael Cherel (AG2R La Mondiale), were left scattered in his wake with 2.7km to go, Uran seemed destined for victory, though he was made to sweat for it by the advancing Yates. The 25-year-old attacked from the main group of favourites – containing Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) – and impressively made his way up to Aru and Gaudu before skipping clear to set up a nail-biting final-kilometre pursuit of Uran.

The Colombian went under the flamme rouge with 22 seconds in hand but it was down to 14 seconds as he took the left-hand turn for the final hike up to the Basilica. Yates was looking the stronger of the two but he essentially ran out of road, with Uran denied the luxury of sitting up and celebrating but not the victory itself – his second of the season and a statement of intent ahead of Il Lombardia on Saturday.

"I was a little worried about Yates catching me because I’d suffered a lot to get up here," Uran said. "I wanted to do well today because I’m feeling good. I like racing in Italy and I like this race, it suits me. I’ve been trying to win Lombardia for a few years now, let's hope I can do it this year.”

Nairo Quintana finished strongly to take fourth place as the race fragmented behind Uran and Yates. His Movistar team had looked to split the race with aggressive tactics on the first ascent of Superga but he opted to wait when the move containing Uran went away on the final climb.

Gaudu, the impressive French neo-pro, held on for fourth, crossing the line with Team Sky’s Wout Poels, while Daniel Martinez (Wilier Triestina) and Pinot finished a further few seconds in arrears.

Pierre Latour (AG2R) and Peter Stetina (Trek-Segafredo) rounded out the top 10.

How it unfolded

The roads were largely flat all the way to Superga, which has featured in the race for many years but only as the finale since the race was reimagined by RCS Sport in 2012. The nine per cent climb was tackled twice, the first time seeing the riders turn off shy of the summit for a descent before looping round and tackling it all the way to the Basilica at the top.

In the opening kilometres four riders clipped off the front of the peloton to form the day’s breakaway: Patrick Lauk (Astana), Simone Andreetta (Bardiani-CSF), Guillaume Bonnafond (Cofidis) and Grégory Rast (Trek-Segafredo). Pinot was part of a brief counter-attack that was swiftly shut down by Movistar, but after that there was calm throughout as the breakaway steadily opened up an advantage of over five minutes.

Once through Casale Monferrato and the feed zone at Pozzo Sant’Evasio, with around 90km remaining, the peloton started to move through the gears and make up ground on the leading quartet. FDJ, Cannondale-Drapac, and Movistar, were the primary forces at the head of the bunch and they brought the gap down to 2:30 with 50km remaining.

The pace truly intensified on the approach to Turin, with the start of the finishing circuit at 29.6km to go signifying the start of the race’s denouement. The break’s lead had been slashed as the favourites vied for position on approach to the climb and almost immediately after the road pitched uphill, Bonnafond and Andreeta skipped away from Lauk and Rast, though it wasn’t long before they themselves were caught by the advancing peloton.

Movistar were in the mood and took control, with Dayer Quintana and Victor de la Parte both upping the pace while Sky’s Diego Rosa looked to tap out a more sensible tempo. The first attack came from Winner Anacona and that was cue for the already-thinned bunch to fragment. Rosa tracked it, while Pello Bilbao (Astana), Rein Taaramae (Katusha), Latour, Gaudu, and then Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step) jumped across. As the rest of the other riders started to come back, Alaphilipe kicked again less than a kilometre from the top, leaving the others in his wake.

Alaphilippe might have preferred some company but he seemed to commit as he took on the swooping descent, while some 25 riders settled into a chasing pack behind. Once he hit the flat, however, he found out his lead was less than 20 seconds and he eased up and slotted back into the pack for tactical talks with Dan Martin.

Luis Leon Sanchez, with Bilbao on his wheel, led them to the bottom of the climb with 4.9km to go, but it was Molard who was the first to attack, shortly followed by Aru. The Italian champion’s acceleration was followed closely by Bernal, with Cherel, Gaudu, and Uran also getting involved.

Cherel attacked but, after a brief hesitation among the other five as to who should close it down, he was hunted down, with Uran putting in a pair of impressive accelerations to go clear at the front of the race. Gaudu followed the first but couldn’t match the second.

Further down the road Adam Yates extracted himself from what was left of the bunch and impressively jumped across to the chasers. Cherel and Molard were out of the picture by the time the young Briton made it, with just under 2km to go, leaving him to slot in with Aru and Gaudu some 25 seconds behind Uran. He soon accelerated and left them behind, with Uran in his sights under the flamme rouge.

Quintana, Pinot and Poels made their way up in the closing phases but it proved too little too late as the cameras were fixed on Yates’ pursuit of Uran, the Colombian clinging on for his first victory since the Tour de France.

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