Mollema puts up a strong fight but settles for third behind dominant Del Toro at Gran Piemonte

With the Gran Piemonte, you never know what kind of race you're going to get. The Italian fall race is always one of the most important preparatory races for the Tour of Lombardy, but sometimes it's a race for the sprinters, other times for the climbers. This time, the course was very similar to that of Il Lombardia.

That meant there was an impressive list of riders at the start. With Isaac Del Toro, there was a clear favorite at the beginning, but the Mexican from UAE Team Emirates - XRG - who had already won five Italian autumn races - faced competition from defending champion Neilson Powless (EF Education - EasyPost), Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers), and Christian Scaroni (XDS-Astana), among others.

The beautiful course presented a great opportunity for the local Italians to grab the attention early on, but no one had expected such a strong group to break away so early. Seven names broke away, including Victor Langellotti (INEOS Grenadiers), Jan Tratnik (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Jasha Sütterlin (Jayco-AlUla), Matteo Trentin (Tudor), Odd Christian Eiking (Unibet Tietema Rockets), Adne Holter (Uno-X Mobility), and Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck).

It was a strong group, but they struggled to gain significant time in the hilly opening phase. When climbing the Bric della Forma, after about 80 kilometers, the difference was 1 minute and 40 seconds. After climbing the steep Rocchetta Palafea, the leading group was reduced to three riders: Tratnik, Holter, and Hermans left their rivals behind.

It was a waiting game on the Castelletto d'Erro, the real test that had to be conquered twice. The first time was about 50 kilometers from the finish, and that's when the pace skyrocketed. Of course, it was UAE Team Emirates - XRG that took the lead, with the very young Pablo Torres pushing hard. Sivakov then took over, wondering if Del Toro's attack was already coming.

First, it was Jardi Christiaan van der Lee who made a move. Del Toro countered him on his first acceleration, but with a second breakaway, he managed to pull away. Not much later, Del Toro started to push. Powless jumped with him, along with Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) and the excellent climber Filippo Ganna. On the more rolling sections, he was able to keep up with the climbers very well.

Van der Lee attacked again from the group of favorites that had formed. His compatriot Bauke Mollema joined him, but Marc Hirschi, Ion Izagirre, and the Movistar duo Lorenzo Milesi and Einer Rubio also joined them. However, Sivakov did not let them get far. Meanwhile, the three leaders still had a slight lead.

The Van der Lee-Mollema group was 40 seconds behind the leading group, while the peloton followed 1.10 minutes behind the trio. Sivakov couldn't close the gap on his own, so XDS-Astana went to help. This reduced the gaps somewhat at the foot of the final climb: the trio still had a 15-second lead on the chasers and 40 seconds on the peloton.

The chasers quickly joined the leaders, but Del Toro soon accelerated from behind. The Mexican attacked on the steepest sections, and no one could follow him there. Hirschi saw him coming and accelerated: Mollema followed at a short distance, accompanied by Rubio. But Del Toro was coming.

Mollema dropped Rubio, but the 21-year-old top favorite quickly caught up with him. Together, they closed the gap on the Swiss rider, and shortly after, he made his seemingly decisive breakaway. Mollema managed to hang on for a while, but the Groningen native was no match for the superior strength of the Giro d'Italia's number two. The battle seemed to be over.

Hirschi and Mollema had to join forces in the chase, but the leader was simply too strong. At the top of the final climb, the gap was already more than half a minute. The question was not whether they could catch Del Toro, but whether they could avoid being caught by the depleted peloton. Their lead was only half a minute!

Del Toro was unbeatable and rode confidently to victory. He took his sixth (!) victory in an Italian fall race. Mollema and Hirschi gave everything to stay ahead of the pack, but the gap was reducing. Still, they managed to hold on: in the sprint for second place, Mollema was beaten by Hirschi, but third place was an excellent reward for all the hard work.