Enric Mas drops Pogacar to take impressive win at Giro dell'Emilia

Enric Mas has been over the years a rider criticized by his country's fans over his lack of aggressive racing, however today at the Giro dell'Emilia he showed the exact opposite, taking the win after attacking several times and dropping Tadej Pogacar directly.

The Italian race had a flat start, from which five riders went up the road. Jacopo Guarnieri (Groupama-FDJ), Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R Citroën Team), Kobe Goossens (Intermarché - Wanty - Gobert Matériaux), Johan Meens (Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB) and Rick Pluimers (Jumbo-Visma).

The group was never much of a threat, with Bouchard and Goossens surviving into the final laps already inside Bologna, where the riders had to climb on five occasions the steep and explosive hilltop into the Santuario di San Luca. Alessandro De Marchi, Tao Geoghegan Hart and Pierre Latour went up the road, but the move was short-lived as UAE Team Emirates used their depth to put in a consistent and high pace that saw most riders stay in the peloton.

Lorenzo Fortunato attacked in the penultimate lap, stirring a move from Pogacar and later Enric Mas who attacked several times only with Pogacar just barely managing to follow the Spaniard. Uran, Pozzovivo and Valverde managed to get back to the front in the descent.

In the final climb however, Enric Mas attacked once again near the base with no-one managing to follow the wheel - Pogacar and Pozzovivo formed the chasing group. Nothing could be done however, as the Movistar rider rode to a very strong win on the day. Pogacar sprinted to second place, with Domenico Pozzovivo also surprising to a strong place on the day.