Formolo takes second place behind his teammate(Image credit: Sprint Cycling Agency)
Conci settles for third(Image credit: Sprint Cycling Agency)
Trentin celebrates as the chasers come home(Image credit: Sprint Cycling Agency)
The top two debrief(Image credit: Sprint Cycling Agency)
Marc Hirschi collected the victory at the Veneto Classic as UAE Team Emirates dominated the late-season Italian race, with Davide Formolo making it a team 1-2.
The pair had joined Matteo Trentin in a collective offensive on the repeat cobbled climbs of La Tisa before going clear with Alpecin-Deceuninck's Nicola Conci on the late dirt-road climb of Diesel Farm.
They used their numerical advantage to work over their last remaining rival, Hirschi going clear on the descent with 9km to go and soloing home.
Formolo forced Conci to chase before leaving him behind in the final few kilometres to cross the line in second place, 10 seconds down on his teammate.
Conci hung on for the final podium spot, just ahead of a small chasing group, where Matteo Trentin might have made it three in the top four for UAE, had he not raised his arm to celebrate, causing him to slip to fifth.
"I like the parcours, this year it was real racing with the cobbled climb and gravel," Hirschi said.
The Swiss rider and his teammate had looked to open the race on the three ascents of the short Rosina climb that preceded the trio of laps of a circuit that featured the even punchier La Tisa - 330 metres at 15%. Groups came and went as UAE and Alpecin dictated proceedings, but things came back together in a group of 20 in the final 15km.
There was, however, a significant final obstacle. After the cobbles of La Tisa, it was onto the off-road haul up through Diesel Farm, 1.3km at nearly 10% on dirt and gravel.
Hirschi and Conci quickly went clear, but it looked like Hirschi's chances of winning the race had evaporated when he was dropped by Conci, and then caught and passed by his teammate Formolo. However, Hirschi found a second wind and, sticking to the concrete strip at the side of the gravel, ground his way back at the summit, and then wasted no time in heading out front down the descent.
He took a gap onto the flat and that was enough to force Oldani into an impossible position. He rode to his certain defeat for a good few kilometres before Formolo attacked him. The Italian closed to within nine seconds and it looked like he might link up with Hirschi, but the Swiss rider went full gas all the way to the line, diving through the tight final corners in Bassano del Grappa to celebrate his fourth win of a trying season.
"I did the final climb in training. I knew it was a long climb and I tried to be on the side of gravel to save energy," Hirschi said.
"Luckily came back at the top and went straight to the front. In one moment they made a small mistake and I went over. I could make a 10-second gap and that was enough."
How it unfolded
Filippo Pozzato’s slate of racing in the Veneto has lengthened the Italian racing calendar by a week these past two seasons, and the Veneto Classic thus marks the final road race of the European season.
The event has ambitions of earning a WorldTour slot in the years to come – and its route is certainly worthy of that status – and for its second edition, the number of top-flight teams on the start list expanded to seven.
When the entrants were first announced, there was much interest in the presence of Lotto Soudal and Israel Start-Up, battling for their WorldTour survival, but both were already doomed to relegation by the time they lined up in Treviso on Sunday morning.
The strongest squad on paper, by some distance, was the deep line-up fielded by UAE Team Emirates, with Marc Hirschi, Matteo Trentin and Davide Formolo all featuring.
The race also marked the final act of Davide Rebellin’s 30-year professional career, which can be divided into two neat parts by his suspension following his positive test for CERA at the 2008 Olympics. The Italian has spent more than a decade locked outside the WorldTour, riding primarily at Continental level, and he returned to his home region to bring the curtain down on his career at the age of 51. Rebellin stood in first position ahead of the gruppo on the start line, and he was afforded a light round of applause from his peers and the spectators who had gathered on Treviso’s Piazza dei Signori.
The pace was brisk in the opening stages as the peloton left Trevisio beneath hazy Autumn sunshine and set off towards Conegliano. The unfortunate Alessandro De Marchi was an early faller, and the Israel Premier Tech rider was forced to abandon the race. De Marchi, who impressed at the Giro del Veneto on Wednesday, was hoping to shine again here as he seeks to land a contract for 2023.
The day’s early break finally forged clear just ahead of one of the most well-worn climbs in this corner of the world, the Mura del Ca’ di Poggio. Riccardo Tosin (General Store), Matteo Zurlo (Zalf Euromobil Fior), Michael Belleri (Biesse Carrera), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno X) and Nils Brun (Tudor) struck up a working alliance and quickly built a lead of over four minutes.
After reaching the hinterland of Bassano del Grappa for the first time, the race tackled three laps of a circuit over the climb of La Rosina, where the difficulty of the terrain – and the chasing of UAE Team Emirates – saw the break’s advantage begin to contract. The break was down to four riders and their lead had dropped to just over a minute by the time they reached the finishing circuit, which saw them take in three ascents of the short but sharp cobbled climb of La Tisa.
Inevitably, UAE Team Emirates took up the reins on the first time up La Tisa, with Davide Formolo and Matteo Trentin to the fore. By the top, the break’s lead was down to just a handful of seconds, while Formolo and Trentin had only half a dozen riders for company, including dangerman Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana Qazaqstan).
A reduced peloton reformed shortly afterwards, while the early escapees were swept up. Lopez was aggressive at both the Giro del Veneto and the Serenissima Classic, but the Colombian’s challenge was ended by a crash on the second lap here. UAE, meanwhile, continued their onslaught on the second time up La Tisa, this time with Marc Hirschi the man forcing the issue alongside Formolo.
Over the other side, Formolo and Hirschi had Remy Rochas (Cofidis), Florian Vermeersch (Lotto Soudal), Stefano Oldani (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Christian Scaroni (Astana Qazaqstan) for company, and this sextet had 16 seconds in hand on the chasers when they came around for the final haul up La Tisa with 19km to go.
Formolo led all the way up La Tisa, but he was no longer seeking to split the group. Instead, he had been alerted to the fact that his teammate Trentin was trying to bridge across in the company of Mathias Vacek (Trek-Segafredo) and Andreas Kron (Lotto Soudal), and the pace was duly stalled to allow the man of the moment to join them.
At that point, with three riders in the nine-man break, UAE Team Emirates looked to have a winning hand, but the flat run-in to the final kick up to Diesel Farm saw the front group more than double in size, leaving a group of 20 riders to fight out the win in the closing kilometres.
From there, Hirschi, Conci, and Formolo went clear and, despite a moment of weakness, it was the Swiss rider who stole away with it as UAE Team Emirates rounded out their European season in style.
Patrick is a freelance sports writer and editor. He’s an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish). Patrick worked full-time at Cyclingnews for eight years between 2015 and 2023, latterly as Deputy Editor.
