Our team was among those that animated Monday’s 174km race.
The new week brought another appearance of the Wolfpack on Italian soil, this time at Coppa Bernocchi, a hilly one-day race which had at the start, among others, Remco Evenepoel and Andrea Raccagni, the young Italian who was signed by the squad on a three-year contract. As soon as the race got underway, Soudal Quick-Step assumed pace-setting duties, making sure the small breakaway’s buffer didn’t exceed five minutes.
Remco Evenepoel then decided to light up the race with 80 kilometers to go, launching a powerful attack that saw him open a gap together with Mauri Vansevenant and two other riders. At one point, the quartet had almost 50 seconds on the peloton, but a coalition of teams took over the reins there and pulled hard, reducing the margin of the attackers and reeling them in with around 60 kilometers to go.
Another group went clear, gradually building a consistent gap as they bridged across to the original breakaway. From this move, Stan Van Tricht (Alpecin-Deceuninck) sprinted to victory in Legnano, after almost four of racing; the bunch arrived almost one minute and half later, and Pepijn Reinderink concluded the race as Soudal Quick-Step’s best placed rider at this 105th edition.
Our team continues its adventure in Italy on Tuesday, when we’ll line up at the start of Tre Valli Varesine, our last outing before this weekend’s Il Lombardia.
Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images
