Italian veteran takes second victory in first race of Trittico Lombardo thirteen years after his first
Thirteen years after his first victory in the race, Davide Rebellin has won the Tre Valli Varesine for a second time. The race, which is the first race in the three-day Trittico Lombardo, marks the Italian veteran’s first victory since returning from a two-year doping ban in May. Rebellin, who turned 40 years of age a week before the race, outjumped Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago-CSF Inox) after the pair of them escaped the peloton inside the final kilometre. Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) led a small group over the line to take third place.
The race was largely controlled by the Liquigas-Cannondale team, with local rider Ivan Basso working hard on the front with Peter Sagan for the closing kilometres. The work was all for Vincenzo Nibali, who launched an attack on the final climb with less than a kilometre to go.
Nibali’s move fizzled out quite quickly though, and Pozzovivo launched his own move over the top. Rebellin was the only one able to go with the Colnago-CSF Inox rider and he overtook him in the closing few hundred metres to take his first victory since the 2009 edition of la Flèche Wallonne.
Result Tre Valli Varesine
1. Davide Rebellin (Ita) Miche-Guerciotti
2. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Colnago-CSF Inox
3. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ
4. Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Astana
5. Simon Clarke (Aus) Astana
6. Egor Silin (Rus) Katusha
7. Federico Canuti (Ita) Colnago-CSF Inox
8. Simone Stortoni (Ita) Colnago-CSF Inox
9. Leonardo Bertagnolli (Ita) Lampre-ISD
10. Cesare Benedetti (Ita) Team NetApp