"When we saw that we couldn’t close the gap..." - Julian Alaphilippe joins Tadej Pogacar at Tre Valli Varesine podium

Tre Valli Varesine, out of the Italian autumn classics, is one of the races best suited to the pure puncheurs and Julian Alaphilippe took advantage of that. Although he was not part of the late attacks that marked the race, including Tadej Pogacar's winning move, he had the legs in the final sprint to be one of the best in the chasing group and ended up joining the World Champion on the final podium of the race.

“It’s nice to be on the podium. As a team, we wanted to make the race difficult, without worrying too much about the superiority of Tadej Pogacar and his team,” Alaphilippe said in a statement issued by the team. Tudor was active and tried to attack the race a few times, not race conservatively whilst also preparing the Australian for Il Lombardia where he will have a strong chance of succeeding. In the peloton however the former World Champion tried keeping his powder dry after also having gone on the attack earlier in the afternoon.

"The race itself was already tough and we tried to make it even more demanding: with 100 km to go, I took part in several attacks, Michael was in the chase and we were always well placed".

In the end Pogacar rode to a solo victory and in the small peloton sprint behind, after everyone else had been caught, Alaphilippe rode to third on the day, only beaten by Lidl-Trek youngster Albert Philipsen in the sprint.

“For a while, Michael [Storer] was in the chase, but when we saw that we couldn’t close the gap, we tried to get the best possible result at the finish to be satisfied with the race and the podium".

Alaphilippe also used this as a launchpad for Il Lombardia, his final big goal of the season. However will he be able to ride with the best in the final monument of the season? "In the end, the strongest won… This gives me motivation for my last race of the season, the Giro di Lombardia.”