2021 Tre Valli Varesine (1.Pro), Italy
100th edition: Tuesday, October 5, 2021
Tre Valli Varesine podium history | 2019 edition | 2020 Grande Trittico Lombardo | 2022 edition
Busto Arsizio - Varese, 196.7 kilometers
Alessandro De Marchi wins in Varese. ISN photo
Weather at the finish city of Varese at 2:10 PM, local time: 16C (61F), rain showers, with the wind from the east at 10 km/hr (6 mph). The rain is forecast to continue through the afternoon and by 5:00, declining to a 70% chance of rain.
The race: Here's the report from UAE Team Emirates.
UAE Team Emirates were active from the start on the hundredth edition of the Tre Valli Varesine (1.Pro) which saw the riders face 196.7km from Bursto Arsizio to Varese.
As the riders entered the second hour of racing, Pogačar immediately launched the attack together with Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal), recovering the small gap from the fleeing group and taking the lead in the race.
Shortly after it was the turn of Formolo who, together with four other riders, joined his Slovenian teammate forming the new group leading the race for the last 90km.
In the race characterised by rain, bad luck struck for the Emirati team, with Pogačar slowed down by a puncture in an important phase of the race.
The Slovenian, who returned to the group of pursuers, then put himself at the service of Formolo going, together with Marc Hirschi, to control and manage the gap of the group without allowing accelerations that could mend the gap created with the leaders.
The Italian kept in touch with Alessandro De Marchi (Israel Start-Up Nation) going for the victory with the latter in the final 10km.
Neither of them got the better of the other until the final sprint where De Marchi was able to cross the finish line first.
Behind them came the chasing group with Pogačar taking third place and Alessandro Covi finishing his race in ninth position.
Davide Formolo: “Today was a really hard and very long race. I tried several times to break away and raced each lap as if it were the last, giving my all. In the end, everything was decided in a two-man sprint but I had nothing more in the legs to give ”.
Tadej Pogačar: “We knew it would be a tough race and we immediately tried to be protagonists and get in the moves. I attacked early and together with Davide we worked well together. After the unfortunate puncture I managed to get into the group of pursuers and so we started protecting Formolo who was in the lead. In the end we took home a second and third place so we can be satisfied ”.
Les Woodland's book Cycling Heroes: The Golden Years is available as an audiobook here.
Complete Results:
196.7 kilometers raced at an average speed of 41.112 km/hr
| 1 | Alessandro De Marchi | Israel Start-Up Nation | 4hr 47min 4sec |
| 2 | Davide Formolo | UAE Team Emirates | s.t. |
| 3 | Tadej Pogacar | UAE Team Emirates | @ 38sec |
| 4 | Benoit Cosnefroy | Ag2r-Citroën | s.t. |
| 5 | Andreas Kron | Lotto Soudal | s.t. |
| 6 | Sergio Higuita | EF Education-Nippo | s.t. |
| 7 | Lorenzo Rota | Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert | s.t. |
| 8 | David Gaudu | Groupama-FDJ | s.t. |
| 9 | Alessandro Covi | UAE Team Emirates | s.t. |
| 10 | Aurelien Paret-Peintre | Ag2r-Citroën | s.t. |
| 11 | Nelson Oliveira | Movistar | s.t. |
| 12 | Guillaume Martin | Cofidis | s.t. |
| 13 | Marc Hirschi | UAE Team Emirates | 0:42 |
| 14 | Alexey Lutsenko | Astana-Premier Tech | 0:49 |
| 15 | Clement Berthet | Ag2r-Citroën | s.t. |
| 16 | Jhonatan Restrepo | Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec | s.t. |
| 17 | Vincenzo Nibali | Trek-Segafredo | s.t. |
| 18 | Pierre Latour | TotalEnergies | s.t. |
| 19 | Simone Ravanelli | Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec | s.t. |
| 20 | Mattia Bais | Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec | s.t. |
| 21 | Lorenzo Fortunato | Eolo-Kometa | 1:30 |
| 22 | Vincenzo Albanese | Eolo-Kometa | s.t. |
| 23 | Davide Villella | Movistar | s.t. |
| 24 | Maxime Bouet | Team Arkéa-Samsic | 1:44 |
| 25 | Sean Bennett | Qhubeka-NextHash | 2:19 |
| 26 | Kevin Colleoni | Team BikeExchange | s.t. |
| 27 | Felix Grossschartner | Bora-hansgrohe | 3:04 |
| 28 | Ruben Guerreiro | EF Education-Nippo | 3:15 |
| 29 | Edoardo Zardini | Vini Zabù | 4:27 |
| 30 | Ben Swift | INEOS Grenadiers | 7:44 |
| 31 | Rigoberto Uran | EF Education-Nippo | s.t. |
| 32 | Tim Wellens | Lotto Soudal | 8:46 |
| 33 | Harm Vanhoucke | Lotto Soudal | 8:46 |
| 34 | Filippo Magli | Bardiani CSF Faizanè | s.t. |
| 35 | Antonio Angulo | Euskaltel-Euskadi | s.t. |
| 36 | Luca Chirico | Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec | s.t. |
| 37 | Reto Hollenstein | Israel Start-Up Nation | s.t. |
| 38 | Remy Rochas | Cofidis | 8:49 |
| 39 | Attila Valter | Groupama-FDJ | s.t. |
| 40 | Andrea Vendrame | Ag2r-Citroën | s.t. |
| 41 | Tao Geoghegan Hart | INEOS Grenadiers | s.t. |