Pinot seals Tour of the Alps title as Padun wins final stage

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Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) sealed overall victory at the Tour of the Alps as Mark Padun (Bahrain-Merida) took a solo victory on the final stage.

Attack proved the best form of defence for the Frenchman, who underlined his Giro d’Italia credentials with an aggressive display on the Innsbruck circuit that will be used in the World Championships later this year.

On the last of three ascents of the Olympia climb that forms the centrepiece of the circuit Pinot went clear with Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) and Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), the two riders directly below him on the overall standings. Once down the other side, however, the road flattened out and the impetus waned, allowing the small chase group, containing the other riders in the top 10, back into the picture.

Padun, the 21-year-old Ukranian neo-pro, was in there and took advantage of his relatively low overall standing - 16th at 3:33 at the start of the day - to steal away from the group with four kilometres remaining. Arms folded over his bars, he dug in and finished the job, holding off a dangerous charge from Geroge Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) before punching the air in delight at his first professional victory.

Bennett crossed the line five seconds later to take second place on the stage, followed a second later by Jan Hirt (Astana), Giulio Ciccone (Bardiani-CSF) and Ben O’Connor (Dimension Data). Pinot crossed the line three seconds later, finishing on the same time as his direct rivals, Pozzovivo, Lopez, and Chris Froome (Team Sky).

Pinot therefore sealed the overall title by 15 seconds from Pozzovivo, with Lopez, who finished on the same time, rounding out the podium. Froome, who looked in trouble on the final climb as he was left behind even by his own teammate Kenny Elissonde, hung on to fourth place overall at 16 seconds.

Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) lost ground once again, being dropped on the final climb and never making it back to the group of favourites, and as a result was leapfrogged by Bennett, who took the last place in the top five.

“It was an incredible race, across all five days,” said Pinot. “It was five days of battle. There were no gifts. I’m really happy to write my name into this race, which, for a climber, is very prestigious.”

How it unfolded

After four days of short stages and aggressive racing in the Tyrol region of northern Italy, the final day didn't disappoint as the race crossed over the Austrian border in what was a taster of the roads on which the World Championships will be decided this autumn.

It took a good hour for a breakaway to form, with eight riders involved: Guy Niv (Israel Cycling Academy), Simone Andreetta (Bardiani-CSF), Manuel Senni (Bardiani-CSF), Francesco Gavazzi (Androni-Giocattoli), Oscar Rodriguez (Euskadi-Murias), Igor Anton (Dimension Data), Nicola Bagioli (Nippo-Vini Fantini), and Francois Bidard (AG2R La Mondiale). They were soon joined by Jacopo Mosca (Wilier-Selle Italia) and built a lead of 8:30 as they hit the first-category Alpbach climb, the only difficulty ahead of the Worlds circuit later in the stage.

In the interim, Team Sky and Groupama-FDJ steadily brought the gap to the breakaway down, and once they entered the circuit, with just under 50km to go, it stood at 2:45. As the pace intensified on the first of three ascents of Olympia, that figure plummeted, and it was down to 30 seconds when Sky's David De la Cruz attacked the peloton and went for the break, joining them on the descent. The breakaway started to fragment on the second climb and there were some minor attacks in the peloton, but the race all came back together near the top.

The first real exchanges between the overall favourites came on the second descent when Lopez and Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain-Merida) punched their way clear. Once the road kicked uphill again for the final climb, Lopez kicked on solo in what was a serious grab for overall victory.

Pinot soon launched an attack of his own, putting Froome, who was already at the back of the group, into immediate difficulty. Pozzovivo followed with ease and soon they caught Visconti, who slotted straight onto the front and drove the pace. After Visconti's turn, Pinot and Pozzovivo caught Lopez to form an elite leading trio two-thirds of the way up the climb.

Froome's struggles were evident as he found himself in a trio with Padun and O'Connor in the third group on the road, several seconds behind Elissonde, who was with Bennett, Ciccone and Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana). It was nothing compared to Aru's troubles, who was even further back with yet more Astana riders.

Elissonde was called back for Froome and they made their way up to the other chasers to form one group of seven by the top of the climb, by which point the gap was 20 seconds.

Pinot assumed responsibility and was keen to lead down the descent, though the problems came for the leading trio when the road flattened out. Lopez and Pozzovivo appeared unwilling to work, so Pinot sat on the front pedalling softly, allowing the 25-second gap to vanish in the blink of an eye.

With just a few kilometres to go and any realistic chance of overhauling Pinot well gone, victory was always likely to go to one of the riders who weren't a threat to the top of the overall standings. Padun fit the description and timed and executed his attack perfectly, while Pinot rolled home behind his rivals to cap a fine week in which his stock has risen greatly ahead of the Giro next month.

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