Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) claimed a solo victory on the final stage of Coppi e Bartali, as Ben Tulett (Visma-Lease a Bike) secured the overall victory on the five-stage Italian race.
Vine launched a solo attack from a fragmented peloton on the ascent of Rocca delle Caminate within the final 15km of the 132.5km stage from Brisighella to Forli, putting on an impressive display to secure his second stage win of the race after his stage 3 win.
“It was a pretty hard day but I was glad to be able to get another victory," Vine said.
"The crash on stage 2 ruled me out of the GC but I was pleased to make up for it with these two stage wins. Today the plan was to help Covi and Arrieta into the leaders jersey but the race played out in a particular way which saw me go off the front and ended up fighting it out for the stage win. It was also my first win on the new aero bike which was pretty cool. Igor managed to take third in the GC too so all things considered we’re happy with the week.”
Vine finished 32 seconds ahead of the main group, with Davide Donati (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Rookies) winning the sprint for second ahead of Alexey Lutsenko (Israel-Premier Tech).
Ben Tulett entered the stage in the overall race lead with an 18-second margin over fellow Brit Mark Donovan (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team). With the two riders finishing together in the main chase group, Tulett defended his eventual margin as he claimed overall race victory in Forli.
“It’s amazing to win this overall classification after five tough race days,” said Tulett. “We started today with a solid lead in the general classification, so everything was about defending the jersey. We faced strong competition, but we executed our plan very well to bring it home. Jørgen was an incredible teammate today—he really helped me a lot.”
The final stage saw substantial splits in the peloton at 83 and 66km to go - with the former creating a lead group of around 40 - but no move proved decisive enough to split the peloton. As a result, the first half of the hilly 132.5km stage didn't see a major breakaway, presenting the 6.5km shallow ascent of Rocca delle Caminate as the main obstacle to a mass finish.
However, Lorenzo Nespoli (MBH Bank Ballan CSB) disrupted the calm, though, making a solo attack with 25km remaining. His move gained surprising traction as he pulled out to a gap of around 40 seconds on the approach to the Rocca delle Caminate.
The peloton soon split into two halves, with a chase group consisting of almost half the peloton moving to within 20 seconds of Nespoli at the 20km to go mark.
It was there that a two-man attack consisting of Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Filippo d'Aiuto (Petrolike) broke off the front of the peloton to bridge to Nespoli on the foothills of Rocca delle Caminate.
By the summit of Rocca delle Caminate, the peloton was fragmented with Tulett leading a chase of Nespoli, Vine and d'Aiuto in defence of his race lead.
Vine had taken a narrow lead over the top of the ascent and began to stretch out an advantage on the technical narrow descent into Forli - entering the final 10km with a 30-second lead over the assembled chasers and holding his lead all the way to the finish.
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