Michael Albasini of Orica-GreenEdge has won the Tre Valli Varesine.
The 94th edition of this race and the final race in the Trittico Lombardo series in Italy saw Alexsandr Dyachenko (Astana), Marcos Garcia (Caja Rural), Nikolay Mihaylov (CCC) and David De La Cruz (NetApp-Endura) go clear and stay away until the final lap of a circuit around Varese which included a number of hills on wet roads.
Riders started to attack and an eleven man group quickly formed before crashes took out Enrico Gasparotto and Vincenzo Nibali. Mauro Finetto of Neri Sottoli attacked followed by Sonny Colbrelli but with 25 metres to go, Albasini passed them both and took victory in 5.14.39 with Colbrelli second and Filippo Pozzato of Lampre-Merida in third.
“I’m super happy to win one of these important and well-respected Italian one-day races – and on top of that, the closest one to our base,” Albasini said to his team's press office.
“The team rode perfectly all day and I’m happy to get big morale boost leading into the worlds.
“It was a very tough race with proper bad weather at the end but we stuck to our plan and that worked out really well.
"We did a bit of work early on to pull back the first, big break-away group.
“Then we had Christian Meier perfectly placed in the counter attack that went when they got caught. That meant the rest of us could save our legs a little for the final.
“It came down to a big attack by (Enrico) Gasparotto (AST) on the last climb. That split the group completely and I managed to get into an 11-man break that it created.”
In the break on the final lap and confident of proceedings, Albasini timed his sprint to perfection, passing Sonny Colbrelli (BAR) in the final metres to claim the top step of the dais.
“I knew this was the winning break as no one was pulling properly behind us and I tried to keep calm as my eyes were on the sprint,” Albasini said.
“(Filippo) Pozzato (LAM) was in the group too and I mainly focused on him coming into the last kilometres.
“There were a few crashes coming into the last stretch and I was worried about opening to the sprint too early. Two riders went with 300 metres to go and I managed to close the gap and open my sprint very late.
“The road was so wet that I was even too scared to raise my arms as I crossed the line first!”