Tour of the Alps: Gianni Moscon wins stage 1

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Gianni Moscon (Ineos Grenadiers) took the stage win and race lead on the opening day of the Tour of the Alps, soloing to victory after attacking on the final uncategorised climb of the day, 3.5 kilometres from the finish in Innsbruck.

The Italian, who lives in the city, held off a late challenge from 21-year-old Norwegian Idar Andersen (Uno-X Pro Cycling), who joined him in the final kilometre before losing out in the final dash to the line. Alexandr Riabushenko (UAE Team Emirates) rounded out the podium just behind Andersen, leading home a charging peloton on the same time as Moscon.

"There's no better way to get back racing after two months away due to an injury," Moscon said after the stage. "I've lived in Innsbruck for three years and so I was really motivated to try to win at 'home'.

"It gave me that bit extra that made the difference. Knowing the roads was an advantage, especially psychologically; I knew what was coming and knew how to judge my effort. Of course, you need the legs too and it worked out perfectly.

"The battle for the GC will be hard because some of the best climbers in the world are here as they get ready for the Giro d'Italia. We'll try to defend the lead, but I know I might struggle. I just want to enjoy doing the second stage in the leader's jersey."

He had taken advantage of a brief lull in proceedings after Ineos brought back a late attack move including Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) as they entered Innsbruck. It looked a pre-planned move, with the British squad having no sprinters to look to in the final, and Moscon cut through the tight and twisting downhill run from the late climb more deftly than the still-large peloton.

Moscon would never enjoy a lead of more than six seconds as he powered along the flat final 2.5 kilometres, but the peloton just couldn't do anything about the slender lead, with Andersen's contribution in the final kilometre only helping the attack's success.

The win – Moscon's first in almost two and a half years – sees Moscon grab the race lead, four seconds up on Andersen, who takes the young rider's jersey. Israel Start-Up Nation's Alessandro De Marchi takes the first mountain classification jersey of the race after leading the breakaway over the day's second-category climb.

How it unfolded

The opening stage of the Tour of the Alps saw the peloton tackle a 140.6-kilometre hilly parcours from Brixen across the Italian-Austrian border to Innsbruck. Two categorised climbs – a second-category climb at 52 kilometres and a third-category climb at Axams 35 kilometres out – lay on the route. Axams would come up twice on the finishing circuit, with the final ascent coming 18 kilometres from the line, though as an uncategorised test.

With an uncategorised climb kicking off the stage, the attacks came from the off with De Marchi leading the early moves. The Italian got away on his own with several chasers behind, including Marton Dina (Eolo-Kometa) and Felix Engelhardt (Tirol-KTM).

The pair caught De Marchi on the descent, linking up to make it a three-man break of the day as they quickly built up a gap over the peloton, who were happy to let the trio ride off.

A long, uphill, slog lay ahead on the road to the second-category climb of the Brenner Pass, and the break's advantage extended over five minutes with the peloton in no hurry to bring them back. Engelhardt took the intermediate sprint en route to the climb.

Further back, Astana-Premier Tech led the way in the peloton as the riders headed into the snow atop the climb. De Marchi was first over the top, securing the first KOM jersey of the race, with Dina and Engelhardt following. An upping of pace in the peloton saw the group close to within three minutes on the descent.

De Marchi pushed on alone over the top and down the descent, leaving his two breakmates behind as the peloton moved to 1:30 down in pursuit of the experienced breakaway specialist. As he reached Axams for the second time, his advantage was cut to under a minute, with the chances of him taking victory in Innsbruck slimming with every pedal stroke.

Further back, his former breakmates were caught as the attacks began in the peloton. Riders such as Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Nippo) and Atilla Valter (Groupama-FDJ) among the riders trying to make a move. Felix Großschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe), Nicolas Roche (Team DSM), and Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain Victorious) also tried attacks shortly after the summit, but it wasn't until Pernsteiner's teammate Bilbao tried that a move stuck.

The Basque rider flew down the descent, detaching himself from the front of the peloton as three other men chase him. The trio in question were Mattias Skjelmose Jensen (Trek-Segafredo), Santiago Umba (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec), and Daniel Savini (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè) – not the most obvious candidates for a late move, but a decent fighting force, nonetheless.

The quartet sped down to the flat roads at the bottom, enjoying a 10-second advantage with 10 kilometres to go. Their advantage reached 20 seconds with eight kilometres to go as a number of teams – most prominently Ineos Grenadiers and Caja Rural-Seguros RGA – worked to bring them back. However, their efforts would come to little in the end, as their brief adventure was ended just inside the final four kilometres.

As soon as the catch was made, Moscon launched, flying past the group on the slight uphill rise in Innsbruck. With no response from behind, the Italian was away solo on the downhill to the final run-in.

He held a five-second gap into the final kilometre, as 195 attacked from the peloton on the wide, flat run to the line. Andersen bridged the gap, joining Moscon with 800 metres to go and giving the pair a chance to stay away to the line despite the peloton hanging just a few seconds behind.

They managed to do it – just – as the peloton failed to fully organise in response to the moves. Perhaps without Andersen's turns on the front in the closing metres, Moscon might not have survived, but survive he did, outpacing his late breakmate to take a first victory since the 2018 Tour of Guangxi.