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).
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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).
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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
