Man-in-form defeats man-in-form in Italy: Juan Ayuso impresses again with second win in three days

The season openers in Australia, Spain, the Middle East, France, and, since last weekend, Belgium are already behind us, but in Italy, the road season traditionally kicks off with the Trofeo Laigueglia. This challenging race puts the legs to the test ahead of a series of Italian and French races: Strade Bianche, Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, and Milan-Sanremo.

Last year, the French top talent Lenny Martinez (then Groupama-FDJ, now Bahrain Victorious) won the race, but since his new team was not present, we would have gotten a new winner anyway. The field of participants was impressive, including Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Magnus Sheffield, Michal Kwiatkowski (INEOS Grenadiers), Ayuso, Antonio Morgado (UAE Emirates-XRG), and Alberto Bettiol (XDS-Astana).

Even before noon, the riders had completed 200 kilometers of racing in and around Laigueglia, located on the northern Italian coast. From the start, there were already some decisive breakaways and, unfortunately, some crashes, with Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) and Jonathan Lastra (Cofidis) as victims. Nine riders got away in the aftermath of this crash, although UAE Emirates-XRG kept a firm grip on the pack.

Victor Guernalec (Arkéa - B&B Hotels), Kevin Colleoni (Intermarché-Wanty), Asbjorn Hellemose (Jayco AlUla), Matteo Badilatti (Q36.5), Mattia Bais (Polti-VisitMalta), Odd Christian Eiking (Unibet Tietema Rockets), Alex Tolio (VF Group-Bardiani), Johan Meens (Wagner Bazin) and Lorenzo Nespoli (Colpack Ballan) enjoyed the day's breakaway, but still had to work hard on their bikes to maintain their lead.

After passing the top of the Testico climb (7.2 kilometers at 4.5 percent), the riders headed toward the local lap in and around Laigueglia, where the Capo Mele and Colla Micheri would be the two main obstacles. EF Education-EasyPost stepped up to the plate in this phase but saw one of their riders drop out after a crash: Brit Lukas Nerurkar had to leave the race.

With 45 kilometers to go, the riders entered the local lap, where the pace in the peloton picked up considerably. Things were wide open at the back while Eiking went on an adventure at the front. The Norwegian was trying to avoid being caught by the UAE-Emirates XRG troops, who were setting a fast pace behind him in the service of team leader Ayuso. XDS-Astana and INEOS Grenadiers were also well-positioned at this stage.

With thirty kilometers to go, Magnus Sheffield crashed hard, causing some splits in the peloton. These were straightened out again heading into the climbs, where another American - Powless - opened up the final. Ayuso responded to Morgado's opening move with a strong attack but was followed by Powless and Scaroni. These three men appeared to be the strongest in the race then.

Michael Storer (Tudor) could also return in the descent, after which the four of us entered the final lap. Ayuso pulled out all the stops, but Scaroni was again on his wheel. The XDS-Astana-Italian moved, but the two men were neck and neck. Powless took advantage of this by returning to the descent, but another gap was made on the Capo Mele.

Both Storer and Powless came to the front just before the final kilometer, leaving us to sprint the final kilometer. Ayuso was the first to sprint and kept up his pace until the finish line, which meant his second victory in a row.