Astana dominated the finish of the Gran Trittico Lombardo with a fantastic first and second on the day in the soaking wet northern part of Italy.
It was Gorka Izagirre who took victory solo ahead of his teammate, Aranburu, who lead home a small group of riders that included Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Team), Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) and Michał Kwiatkowski (Team Ineos).
>>> Egan Bernal shows his form with mountainous stage victory at La Route d'Occitanie
How it happened
This race is an amalgamation of the races of Tre Valli Varesine, Coppa Agostini and the Coppa Bernocchi and may be a one off.
The riders started in Legnano and finished in Varese, Italy on a 199.7km hilly course with four finishing laps. Some top riders took to the start in the shape of Greg Van Avermaet, Vincenzo Nibali and Michał Kwiatkowski.
A five man breakaway went up the road in horrendous conditions, with Oscar Riesebeek (Alpecin-Fenix), Quinten Hermans (Circus-Wanty Gobert), Anton Kuzmin (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Raffaele Radice (Sangemini-Trevigiani), Davide Baldaccini (Team Colpack-Ballan).
>>> How to live stream Milan – San Remo 2020: watch the first Monument of the new season
The rain was so heavy that it knocked nearly all of the TV images out, which is strange for the start of August in Italy, so seeing any live images were very hard to come by, but Trek-Segafredo dominated the peloton, working for Nibali up until about 25km to go where the attacks started to come.
It was Trek rider, Gianluca Brambilla who kicked off first and that is where Team Ineos came to the front to work hard for Kwiatkowski and Gianni Moscon.
Several moves then peppered the peloton and ripped it to bits. The next time we saw the riders it showed a small group had caught the break.
Van Avermaet, Aranburu, Izagirre, Nibali and Kwiatkowski were all there and involved with a chance to win.
Izagirre then attacked with around 10km to go and pulled out an advantage of over 30 seconds. Van Avermaet had a teammate in Alessandro De Marchi but he was not able to pull back the Basque climber.
Astana's Spanish climber put in a huge effort and took victory ahead of his teammate, Aranburu who beat Van Avermaet in the reduce sprint behind Izagirre.
Results
Gran Trittico Lombardo 2020: Legnano - Varese (199.7km)
1. Gorka Izagirre (Esp) Astana, in 4-41-02
2. Alex Aranburu (Esp) Astana, at 27s
3. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) CCC Team
4. Michał Kwiatkowski (Pol) Team Ineos
5. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
6. Jan Polanc (Slo) UAE Team Emirates
7. Nicola Bagioli (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec, all at same time
8. Louis Vervaeke (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix, at 28s
9. Alessandro De Marchi (Ita) CCC Team), at 30s
10. Jhonatan Narváez (Ecu) Team Ineos, at 1-01m
Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
-
-
Wiebes takes a dominant win for DSM at the Ronde van Drenthe
DSM place four women in a final break of seven to guide the Dutch sprinter to her 13th race win of the season
By Owen Rogers •
-
'There’s nothing wrong with a bit of help': E-biking up the Great Orme on a father-son Tour of Britain
A product review of the Kinesis LYFE e-bike? A British cycling odyssey? Or perhaps just a complete and utter boondoggle?
By Jonny Long •
-
Miguel Ángel López returns to Astana following turbulent year with Movistar
The Colombian climber had his contract terminated by Movistar after he abandoned the Vuelta a España 2021
By Tim Bonville-Ginn •
-
Astana reveal new name for 2022 as headline sponsor Premier Tech pulls out of team
The Kazakhstani team has been through some major upheaval in recent years, including some unusual leadership changes
By Alex Ballinger •
-
Alexandre Vinokourov returns to Astana as team confirms its future is secure for 2022
The team boss was ousted in June before now returning a couple of months later
By Jonny Long •
-
Aleksandr Vlasov says 'it was not easy to breathe' through dust on gravel stage of Giro d'Italia 2021
The Russian climber put in a very solid performance to move up to second in the overall standings
By Tim Bonville-Ginn •
-
Jakob Fuglsang: I wasted eight years of my career eating too little
Jakob Fuglsang said he wasted eight years of career by not eating enough.
By Alex Ballinger •
-
Primož Roglič cedes overall lead as Ion Izagirre wins select sprint on stage four of Tour of the Basque Country 2021
Ion Izagirre took stage four of the Tour of the Basque Country 2021 in a photo finish ahead of fellow Basque rider Pello Bilbao from a select group that went away on the descent of the final climb.
By Tim Bonville-Ginn •
-
Alex Aranburu surprises the race favourites with late attack to win stage two of Tour of the Basque Country 2021
Alex Aranburu took stage two of the Tour of the Basque Country 2021 after he attacked in the closing 10km of the day holding off the fast-finishing group of favourites behind
By Tim Bonville-Ginn •
-
Astana-Premier Tech sports director wants Vincenzo Nibali to finish his career with the team
The general manager of Astana-Premier Tech has said that he wants Vincenzo Nibali to return to his team for the last season of his career.
By Tim Bonville-Ginn •
