03/10/2023

Ilan van Wilder outsmarts competition to win Tre Valli Varesine; Pogacar and Roglic miss podium

Ilan van Wilder took an impressive win this Tuesday at the Tre Valli Varesine, anticipating the big favourites and winning the Italian classic in front of Richard Carapaz and Aleksandr Vlasov.

The breakaway of the day in this hilly race proved to be a strong one featuring Gianluca Brambilla, Gonzalo Serrano, Rémy Rochas, Walter Calzoni, Erik Fetter, Francesco Busatto and Alessio Martinelli. In the peloton the action kicked off with 75 kilometers to go, the roller-coaster circuit benefited those looking to move from early on.

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The likes of Jan Tratnik and Jay Vine were involved in the action, eventually Julian Alaphilippe and Pavel Sivakov attacked effectively and got some time on the peloton. Eventually they were caught with 52 kilometers to go alongside Aleksandr Vlasov, afterward more very dangerous figures such as Valentin Madouas and Ben Healy also took their opportunities.

Meanwhile the breakaway slowly lost riders, but the gap also came down slowly. With 29 kilometers to go Warren Barguil and Wilco Kelderman moved from the peloton and bridged across to sole survivor Calzoni from the front group. They were caught with 13 kilometers to go at the bottom of the final sequence of climbs.

Ion Izagirre launched the first serious attack, but shortly after Tadej Pogacar made his own move and really split the group. Tactics then began to come in, with Richard Carapaz and Enric Mas briefly moving up the front but being closed down by the Slovenians. Taking advantage of a stalemate, Ilan van Wilder attacked with 9 kilometers to go.

The chasing group saw very little collaboration and the gap grew to 15 seconds. It seemed closable, but inside the final ascent the gradients were never too hard and the main favourites saved themselves. Too much in fact, no-one took the risk early on and van Wilder rode away with a sensational victory.

Richard Carapaz attacked just outside the final kilometer successfully and took the second place on the day. Aleksandr Vlasov then sprinted to third, both Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic missed out on the podium.