In true Pogacar style! Marco Frigo claims first pro victory with epic 72-kilometer solo at Tour of the Alps

Storer won the second stage of the stage race in the Tour of the Alps on Tuesday. The Australian broke away from his opponents on the final climb and extended his lead in the subsequent descent. It was a double victory for the Tudor rider, who took the lead in the GC from Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek).

A day later, on Wednesday, another difficult stage awaited the riders. After the riders set off in Sterzing, 145.5 difficult kilometers followed to the finish in Innichen. There were two categorized climbs, although the riders also had to tackle a tough uncategorized climb after 56 kilometers. The final climb peaked 11 kilometers from the finish, after which the riders would reach the finish line via a very steep and technical final stretch.

In a turbulent opening phase, it took a long time before riders broke away from the peloton, but the first to succeed were Samuele Zoccarato (Team Polti VisitMalta) and David Paumann (Austrian selection). Not much later, three riders joined them, after which sixteen other riders managed to reach the front. Among them were Lennard Kämna (Lidl-Trek), Chris Hamilton (Picnic-PostNL), Ben Zwiehoff (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), and Florian Stork (Tudor). The latter was the best placed of the 21-man breakaway in the GC, 1 minute and 9 seconds behind leader Storer.

On the first steep sections of the uncategorized climb, there was lots of action at the front. The large breakaway group fell apart, with the first riders dropping out here and there. However, this only affected a few riders, as the breakaway group reached the top with 19 riders. At that point, the peloton was a minute and a half behind.

Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost) subsequently moved to the leading group with 77 kilometers to go, where he joined teammate Michael Valgren. Not much later, Frigo broke away from the leading group on the Furkelpass (7.7 kilometers at an average gradient of 7.2%). Zoccarato tried to follow but was unable to keep up with his compatriot.

At the top, Frigo had a lead of one and a half minutes on the first chasers, as the leading group had broken up again. The peloton followed two and a half minutes behind the Italian. Behind them, the peloton was slowly but surely coming to life. Lidl-Trek pushed hard in the peloton, thinning the pack to a group of favorites.

The depleted peloton caught up with the breakaway riders one by one, leaving only three riders between the peloton and Frigo in the valley leading to the final climb. They were Frederik Wandahl (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Finlay Pickering (Bahrain Victorious) and Andrew August (INEOS Grenadiers). With 37 kilometers to go, the trio had a one-minute lead over the peloton and a one-minute and fifteen-second gap behind Frigo.

Tudor took the peloton lead but did not set a high pace. This allowed several riders to return to the peloton in the valley and allowed Frigo to extend his lead. The Swiss team seemed willing to let the victory go to the Italian or one of the three chasers, as there was no threat to their leader, Storer, in the GC. The trio also lost some time on the Israel-Premier Tech rider.

Nothing seemed to stand in the way of a magnificent victory for Frigo. The Italian began the final climb with a two-minute lead over the three chasers and a full four minutes ahead of the peloton. The question was whether there would be any action behind Frigo in the peloton. Teammate Matthew Riccitello countered an attack by Davide Piganzoli (Team Polti VisitMalta) and thus broke away from the pack. The pace had increased considerably in the peloton, causing Frigo's lead to diminish rapidly.

With just under two minutes lead over teammate Riccitello, Frigo reached the top, leaving only a small plateau and a difficult descent between him and a very impressive stage victory. There were some accelerations in the peloton, including by Storer, but no one managed to break away. Due to the accelerations, Riccitello was caught again, but he was still a minute behind Frigo. The Italian thus completed a solo ride of more than 70 kilometers (!), his first professional victory. Behind him, the men in the GC came quite close, but they fell just short by less than half a minute in the end.