Preview Tre Valli Varesine 2025 | Pogacar and Vollering back in the hunt for victory

On Monday, the peloton participated in the Coppa Bernocchi, but they won't have to travel far for Tuesday's race: the Tre Valli Varesine, loosely translated as the Three Valleys. That's where most of the race will take place, starting in Busto Arsizio and finishing in Varese.

Last season, the race was halted due to adverse weather conditions, and ultimately, there was no winner. Ilan Van Wilder (2023) is therefore still the last winner in Varese, where Tadej Pogacar won in 2022.

2024 Canceled
2023 Ilan Van Wilder
2022 Tadej Pogacar
2021 Alessandro de Marchi
2020 Canceled
2019 Primoz Roglic
2018 Toms Skujins
2017 Alexandre Geniez
2016 Sonny Colbrelli
2015 Vincenzo Nibali

Tre Valli Varesine is a race that—how could it be otherwise when you're called the Race of the Three Valleys—consists of three different parts. First, the race starts in Busto Arsizio and heads towards Varese, where we encounter two local courses, which must be conquered eight times each.

As always, this provides the necessary elevation gain, which is spread over climbs such as the Casbeno (2.5 kilometers at 4.9 percent), Montello (2 kilometers at 5.2 percent) in the first lap, and Morosolo (1.6 kilometers at 7.8 percent) and Casciago (1.6 kilometers at 5 percent) in the second local lap.

After the last time up Casciago, there are still ten kilometers to go, but make no mistake: even in the last five kilometers, there is still an annoying climb before the last kilometer descends slightly towards Varese. This is where the 2008 World Cycling Championships were held, with Alessandro Ballan as the eventual winner.

Weather
It won't be as bad as last year in northern Italy, where it is currently late summer. Tuesday will be an excellent day for racing, with temperatures of 21°C and plenty of sunshine.

Times
Start: 12:15 PM local time (06:15 AM EDT)
Finish: approximately 4:40 PM local time (10:40 AM EDT)

Last weekend they became European champions, but both Demi Vollering and Tadej Pogacar will be back in action in Varese on Tuesday. The Slovenian from UAE Emirates-XRG is the top favorite wherever he starts, and this is no different. However, it could also be that Isaac del Toro will be allowed to do his thing, and Pogacar will mainly focus on Lombardy.

Remco Evenepoel will not be there, but the numbers four and five from the European Championships in France will. We are talking about Christian Scaroni of XDS-Astana and Toms Skujins of Lidl-Trek, who already won Tre Valli Varesine in 2018. Together with Primoz Roglic, the 2019 winner, they are among the outsiders for this race. Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe also has Jai Hindley and Giulio Pellizzari at its disposal.

But there are others. Visma | Lease a Bike, for example, is participating with Ben Tulett and Cian Uijtdebroeks. At the same time, Decathlon AG2R also has several players in the field, with Leo Bisiaux, Andrea Vendrame, and Paul Lapeira. Groupama-FDJ is counting on Valentin Madouas and David Gaudu, while EF Education-EasyPost (Richard Carapaz) and INEOS Grenadiers (Egan Bernal and Thymen Arensman) are bringing their climbers.

Other interesting riders are Gianmarco Garofoli, Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step), Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL), Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor), Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), and Davide Piganzoli (Polti VisitMalta).

Top favorites: Tadej Pogacar and Isaac del Toro (UAE Emirates-XRG)
Outsiders: Christian Scaroni (XDS-Astana), Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) and Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R)
Longshots: Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek), Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal Quick-Step), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Ben Tulett (Visma | Lease a Bike), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) and Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers)

Tre Valli Varesine can be followed on Tuesday via Eurosport and HBO Max. From 11:00 AM local time, you can watch the women's race, which finishes around noon, and see Demi Vollering showcase her European jersey. At 3:25 PM local time, it's time to tune in for the men's race.