@WTFK
Primož Roglič claimed victory in today’s Giro dell’Emilia, after the Slovenian rider attacked fellow countryman Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) along the Colle della Guardia di San Luca to seize the day’s honors.
The race was largely uneventful until the peloton arrived to the circuit around the San Luca climb, upon which UAE Team Emirates set a ferocious pace to dwindle the front group down to a select composition.Yates produced a remarkable ride to tee up his leader Pogačar, but despite the UAE Team Emirates rider launching an attack inside the final kilometer, he was unable to shake off the likes of Roglič and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost).
By this point, all that remained to decide the day’s winner was the final sprint, which prompted Roglič into an early launch, with the Jumbo-Visma rider proving unstoppable, soaring to his third Giro dell’Emilia title, while Pogačar was forced to settle for second.
“It’s an iconic old race, with the San Luca climb, I love it, and it’s always great to finish it off,” said Roglič. “It was super hard, at the end I just went for it and I had the legs to finish it off.”
Race Highlights
Alex Bogna (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Cristian Scaroni (Astana), Jacopo Mosca (Lidl-Trek), Floris De Tier (Bingoal-WB), Mattia Bais (Eolo Kometa), Emanuele Ansaloni (Technipes) marked the day’s first breakaway effort, with Matteo Montefiori (Technipes) and Marcel Camprubí (Q36.5) losing touch with the group.
Scaroni and Bais later attacked along the climb, but the duo was reeled in as they came into the four closing circuits with 41km to go.
The pace heading into the first trip up the brutal San Luca climb was nearly a full-on, with Alejandro Osorio (GW Shimano Sidermec) the first to attack.
Bu the Colombian rider was quickly reined in, with Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) coming to the front on the steepest section, while Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla) bridged across, subsequently dropping Pacher on the second ascent.
Fausto Masnada (Soudal-Quickstep) was the next rider to launch as Harper was 30 seconds up the road but couldn’t make it. But, the Italian was overtaken by Giovanni Aleotti (Bora-Hansgrohe) on the next ascent with 20km to go. while Harper still had a 22-second lead, but he punctured on the climb.
On the penultimate climb, Harper was clinging to an advantage of just over 10 seconds, when Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) surged, stringing out the elite group of surviving chasers and bringing them past the Australian.
From there, Yates led the group of nine over the penultimate summit for Pogačar with Enric Mas (Movistar), Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe), Richard Carapaz (EF-EasyPost), Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) and Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) in tow.
On the final climb to the finish, Vlasov initiate an attack, a move that was quickly shut down by Adam Yates et al.
Coming into the final kilometer, Pogačar commenced an attack, reducing the group to Carapaz, Roglič and Mas but the pace eased as the gradient slackened and the rest of the group rejoined.
Roglič attacked into the final 300 meters, leaving Pogačar unable to respond.
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