Bahrain duo outmuscles in-form Grégoire at Italian spring opener

While the Italian spring is often said to begin on Saturday with Strade Bianche, Wednesday already served up a tasty appetiser. Trofeo Laigueglia was held for the 63rd time, with a lumpy course along the Ligurian coast. Early on, the riders tackled the Cipressa, a climb we of course know from Milan–San Remo. In the finale, the Colla Micheri (1.9km at 8.4%) featured three times.

The 1.Pro race attracted ten WorldTour teams, with Unibet Rose Rockets also lining up in Italy. On paper, the main favourites included Christian Scaroni and XDS Astana team-mate Simone Velasco, Marc Hirschi (Tudor), Alex Aranburu (Cofidis), the in-form Grégoire and António Morgado (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

At first, a group of ten managed to ride clear. The break was given plenty of room and built a maximum advantage of around six minutes. With 91 kilometres to go, Louis Vervaeke (Soudal Quick-Step) forced a split at the front. The Belgian shook off his fellow escapees, who fell apart into smaller groups.

Behind him, Paul Fietzke (Red Bull), Ben Granger (Solution Tech NIPPO Rali) and Alfred Grenaae (General Store-Essegibi-F.Lli Curia) came together. They quickly found themselves more than a minute down. Up front, Vervaeke held his own for a long time and stayed ahead of both the chasers and the peloton.

Vervaeke rode alone for a long stretch, until a strong quartet jumped from a reduced bunch of around 30 riders. On the second of the key passages over the Colla Micheri, Buitrago, Tiberi (both Bahrain Victorious), Quinten Hermans (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) and top favourite Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) quickly opened a 30-second gap.

The quartet soon reached lone attacker Vervaeke, who managed to latch on briefly. On the Capo Mele, however, Vervaeke and Hermans were forced to let Grégoire and the Bahrain duo go. At that point, the three leaders still had a lead of roughly half a minute.

Behind them, a group of five riders attacked out of the reduced peloton on the descent towards the final Colla Micheri, including António Morgado and Diego Ulissi. Up front, Bahrain tried several accelerations to drop the fast-finishing Grégoire on the climb, but the Frenchman matched every move. On the descent, though, Buitrago finally created a gap.

With the peloton too far back, it was clear the winner would come from the front. Starting the final run over the Capo Mele with around ten seconds on Grégoire and team-mate Tiberi, Buitrago extended his advantage even more. The Colombian then descended to his first win of the season. Behind him, Grégoire won the sprint for second ahead of Tiberi.