A lone attack netted Italian veteran Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco-AIUia) stage 2 of the Tour of the Alps, as Tobias Foss and his Ineos Grenadiers team kept the race lead for a second straight day despite giving up on the chase of the early break of the day.
De Marchi, a three-time Vuelta a España stage winner and 2021 Giro d’Italia leader,
powered away from closest pursuer and breakaway companion Simon Pellaud (Tudor ProCycling) on the main climbing challenge of the 190-kilometre stage, the cat.2 Gnadenwald.
Powering along the flat valley road that followed, De Marchi crossed the line in Stans, Austria with an advantage of over a minute on Patrick Gamper (Bora-Hansgrohe), with Pellaud coming home in third.
On a day when the GC battle was all but neutralised and with De Marchi not an overall threat, the Ineos-controlled peloton came home two minutes down on the stage winner.
Ineos lead the peloton for much of the 190km stage but then gave up the chase when other teams refused to help with the chase.
“It took a lot of effort to win but I was confident because a few years ago I found a new nice super environment here in Jayco and I knew it was just about the right moment, the right time,” 37-year-old De Marchi said emotionally of his win after pointing to his Jayco-AlUla jersey as he crossed the finish line.
“I was already up there in the Giro last year, and this year, again I’m there, and with a bit of luck and courage, sometimes it happens.”
He agreed that with so many young riders currently impacting on the sport, to take a win at nearly 38 felt even more special, concluding simply - “It means a lot.”
How it unfolded
The first 30 kilometres of the 190 km stage saw multiple, unsuccessful attacks, but then just as on Monday’s opening stage, an identical number of six riders finally formed the early move of the day.
Once again, Simon Pellaud (Tudor ProCycling) was amongst their number, although on this occasion locally born racer Patrick Gamper (Bora-Hansgrohe) joined the Swiss rider, along with veteran breakaway specialist De Marchi (Jayco-AIUIa) and former teammate Lukas Postlberger (Austria National Team) , as well as two JCL Team UKYO riders, Yuma Koishi and Atsushi Oka.
The six riders extended their lead to three minutes on the interminable drag up to the Passo del Brennero. At 1,370 metres above sea level it was both the high point of the stage and the point where the Tour of the Alps crossed over from Italy into Austria.
By the summit of the Passo del Brennero, their advantage had reached over four minutes, prior to Ineos Grenadiers beginning a more cohesive pursuit on the long, equally rolling descent that followed.
The break had slowly diminished in size, losing first both JCL Team UKYO riders and then Postlberger on an uncategorized ascent. Then Gamper launched the first serious bid from the break for victory with a lone attack at 35 kilometres to go.
Clearly motivated by racing on home soil, the current Austrian national time trial champion’s attack over the top of a small unclassified climb quickly gained around 15 seconds. But with so much flat in the Inn valley before the final key ascent of the Gnadenwald, whether he could really go the distance remained a moot point.
Gamper was no threat on GC at nearly nine minutes down, so Ineos Grenadiers initial desire to keep things under control visibly eased several notches in any case as the final climb approached. Nother teams picked up the chase and so suddenly the breakaway knew they had a chance of victory.
Gamper initially appeared the best-placed rider to win. However, after battling into a strong headwind his advantage shrank notably on the lower slopes of the Gnadenwald and three kilometres from the top, the trio regrouped, only for De Marchi immediately to put in a steady acceleration.
Gamper quickly fell back under the impact of De Marchi's painful pace, and on the steepest section Pellaud struggled, too. He clung on briefly, only for De Marchi to turn the screws a little harder and drop the Swiss rider 2.5 kilometres from the top.
Two and a half long years had passed since De Marchi’s last win in the Tre Valli Varesine, but the Italian veteran, clearly in strong form, was determined to make this one count. By the much easier higher section, the Jayco-AIUIa rider had opened the gap yet further and then began to time trial to victory.
With 14 kilometres to go, De Marchi had an advantage of 41 seconds on a flagging Pellaud and the stage was effectively his, with only a slight misjudgement on one of the trickier, tighter right-hand corners of a descent offering some hindrance to his progress.
Moving onto the flat valley floor, De Marchi upped his lead by another 10 seconds and smiled in delight as the last kilometre approached. Not even a last small uphill drag could stop him from claiming his seventh career win.
Stage 2 belonged to the breakaways but stage 3 should be far more of a GC day. At 124.8 km, it is a punchy, short affair starting and finishing in the town of Schwarz in Austria.
There are four tough category 2 ascents in the final hour and the last, the Pillberg, is just four kilometres from the finish.
With 38 riders at less than a minute overall, Foss could well have a much tougher task on his hands to defend his lead of just a few seconds but for him and for De Marchi, the Tour of the Alps is already a major success.
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