Cédrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT) powered to a solo victory in a rain-soaked fourth edition of the Tre Valli Varesine women's race, continuing her stunning 2024 season with a fifth win.
It was a brutal day of racing in Northern Italy as adverse weather conditions sparked two shortenings of the original 136.3km route. The rain-soaked and fragmented peloton came home in small groups behind Kerbaol.
Having won a stage of the Tour de France Femmes thanks to her expert downhill and time-trialling abilities earlier in the season, Kerbaol showed off the same skills as she navigated the slippery roads, before launching to an eighth career win.
Persico sat on defending champion Lippert's wheel after the German bridged across to her out of the group behind and tried to pull back Kerbaol unsuccessfully, before outsprinting her to second place 20 seconds after the Frenchwoman crossed the line.
How it unfolded
The action kicked off in the fourth Tre Valli Varesine women's race even before the flag dropped, with an early circuit in Busto Arsizio and two of the 15.8km final circuit laps to be removed due to heavy rain.
Despite the brutal conditions, several moves tried to get away on the wet roads, the strongest of which included defending champion Lippert. The day's main breakaway formed with 75 km to go, with Mareille Meijering (Movistar), Flora Perkins (Fenix-Deceuninck), Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health), Francesca Barale (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), Persico, Joscelin Lowden (Uno-X Mobility) and Monica Trinca Colonel (Bepink-Bongioanni) going clear.
As another lap was taken out of the racing in the worsening conditions, the break's gap extended out past the minute mark 35 km from the finish, with Urška Žigart (Liv AlUla Jayco) doing much of the pulling in the heavily reduced chase group.
Meijering was the first rider in the break to bite in the final two laps, attacking her fellow escapees, however, she quickly knocked off her effort and began sitting at the back. This seemed like an instruction as 10km later, the break had been caught and Lippert was one of several riders to bridge the gap.
On the climb up to Varese before the final lap, more attacks followed, first through French champion Juliette Labous (DSM-Firmenich PostNL). Then former junior world champion Julie Bego (Cofidis) attacked alone on the key Montello (2 km at 5.2%) climb.
Labous and Lippert joined her but this move soon faded as Persico countered over the top with Kerbaol inside the final 10km. The hesitation began to hinder the group behind who quickly found themselves 13 seconds down.
Kerbaol then kicked away from Persico as the race hit the final ascent of the Salita dei Ronchi (1.9 km at 5.3%), just as Lippert took it upon herself to bridge the gap solo knowing the win was disappearing up the road.
The Frenchwoman eked out her lead on the ride up to Varese, eventually crossing the line with her arms aloft 20 seconds ahead of Persico and Lippert who rounded out the podium positions.
Results
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