Geniez wins Tre Valli Varesine

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Alexandre Geniez (AG2R La Mondiale) claimed victory in Tre Valli Varesine after he pipped Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) with a well-timed sprint at the end of a breathless final lap in Varese.

Nibali sparked the decisive move when he accelerated fiercely on the final climb with a shade under three kilometres to go after his teammate Giovanni Visconti had whittled down the front group with a searing display of pace-making. Only Pinot could follow his rasping attack, and the pair built up what initially seemed set to be a winning advantage over the fragmented chasing group.

Pinot and Nibali never quite succeeded in disappearing from sight, however, with Fabio Aru (Astana) and Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac) among those to give chase on the shallow haul towards the finish.

Geniez bided his time until the road flattened out inside the final kilometre, and he managed to bridge across to Nibali and Pinot with a little over 500 metres to go. The leading group expanded to a quarter soon afterwards when they were joined by Diego Ulissi (UAE-Team Emirates), but the Italian expended so much energy in closing the gap that he made no impact in the sprint and had to settle for fourth.

Pinot opted to open his sprint from distance but while he managed to hold off Nibali's attempt to overhaul him, he was unable to deny Geniez, who gauged his effort smartly and hit the front inside the final 50 metres to take the honours.

Geniez was full value for his victory in what proved to be a most entertaining start to the final trio of races on the Italian calendar. Nibali, Pinot et al will all hope to be in contention for honours again at Milano-Torino on Thursday and at Il Lombardia on Saturday.

The victory in Varese was Geniez's third of the season and his first since his AG2R La Mondiale team sent him home from the Vuelta a España after he was filmed holding onto a team car.

"It's a great feeling to win a race like this at the end of the season," said Geniez, who has enjoyed racing on Italian roads throughout his career and placed 9th at the 2015 Giro d'Italia.

"We looked at the start list this morning and realised it's a real race, and we said we wanted to win it."

Villella took fifth place, 7 seconds down on the leaders, at the head of a chasing group that comprised Sam Oomen (Sunweb), Giovanni Moscon (Sky) and Aru.

How it unfolded

After a rapid start to proceedings, the early break finally took shape after 40 kilometres, when Daniel Turek (Israel Cycling Academy), Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF), Diego Rubio (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Artem Nych (Gazprom Rusvelo), Ettore Carlini (D'Amico Utensilnord) and Marco Bernardinetti (Amore & Vita) forged clear.

That sextet built up a lead in excess of five minutes before first Bahrain-Merida and then Orica-Scott began to work at the head of the peloton to keep their advantage under control as the race hit the nine laps of the 12.5-kilometre finishing circuit around Varese, which included the climb of Montello and the haul towards the finish by way of Piazzale Libertà.

As the race entered the final 50 kilometres, there was a flurry of counter-attacking, while up front, the unity of the leaders had dissipated, and only Turek, Tonelli and Rubio remained from the early break.

They were joined by counter-attackers Carlos Verona (Orica-Scott) and Redi Halilaj (Amore e Vita) with three laps remaining, but the activity of men like Wout Poels (Sky) in the main peloton meant that their advantage now hovered at less than a minute.

After Poels' acceleration on the climb of Montello was snuffed out, Fausto Masnada (Androni-Sidermec) and Pawel Poljanski (Bora-Hansgrohe) succeeded in bridging across to the leaders with 20 kilometres remaining.

On the penultimate lap, as Bahrain-Merida began to wind up the pace in the main peloton after a brief respite, Verona opted to try his luck alone, though he took the bell with only the smallest of leads over Poljanski, Halilaj, Masnada, Turek, Tonelli and Rubio, while the bunch was just 20 seconds behind.

The escapees were reeled in with a shade over 8 kilometres remaining after a particularly long stint of pace-making from Visconti, winner of the Giro dell'Emilia at the weekend. The Sicilian remained in situ at the head of the peloton deep into the final lap and his work helped to whittle the peloton down to its bare bones as it tackled the lower slopes of the final climb towards the finish

It was clear, however, that Visconti's labours were on behalf of his fellow Sicilian Nibali, and his attack, though widely expected, was no less ferocious as a result. Only Pinot could match him on the steepest section of the climb, as both men tested one another in something of a dress rehearsal for Il Lombardia.

They would be upstaged, however, by Geniez, who smartly managed his resources on the final climb, and then held his nerve in the tense finale.

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