Coppa Agostoni 2024

October 6, 2024 Another October day, another one-day Italian Classic. Coppa Agostoni is 166KM long and 3,000M climbing but, with a flat run to the finish, the climbers will have to get rid of all of the fast men if they want the glory. Six riders made the early break, Vincenzo Albanese of Arkéa-B&B Hotels, Guillaume Martin of Cofidis, Aurélien Paret-Peintre of Decathlon AG2R, Rémy Rochas of Groupama-FDJ, Filippo Conca of Q36,5, and Filippo Magli of VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè. With 55KM to go, the main group was down to 20 riders being led by UAE and a gap of 30 seconds. The break hit the Colle Brianze with 50KM to go but Marc Hirschi of UAE attacked behind and quickly bridged to the leaders. He brought Paul Lapeira of Decathlon AG2R, Alex Aranburu and Einer Rubio of Movistar, Romain Grégoire of Groupama-FDJ, and Gianmarco Garofoli of Astana with him. A number of riders came back on the descent making a much larger group. Hirschi was keen to get away however and attacked at the foot of the final climb of Lissolo with 41KM to go and brought along Grégoire, Lapeira, and Aranburu again. Aranburu was dropped about 300M from the top of the climb as Hirschi sprinted the final few hundred meters. The three leaders had about 10 seconds on Aranburu and another 25 seconds back to the remnants of the chase. Aranburu got back on 30KM from the line and started riding with the other three a few kilometers later as they needed to keep pushing to hold off the group behind. With 10KM to go, the race was all drawing closer together. The four leaders had 17 seconds on a group of around 10 riders and another 20 seconds to a larger chase group. Grégoire put in a dig with 5KM to go. Hirschi was forced to close it down. Aranburu was next to attack at 3.9KM to and he got a gap. The other three worked surprisingly well together and brought him back with 2.2KM to go. It was slow and tactical into the final kilometer. Aranburu tried one final time but was dragged back by Hirschi at 300M from the line. Lapeira countered and went long. Grégoire was on his wheel with Hirschi latched on as well. Aranburu was dispatched at this point and would not contest the sprint. The sprint was too long for Lapeira as Grégoire passed on his right with Hirschi drawing level on his left. It was a drag race to the finish, capped off by Hirschi who took the win by half a bike length to Grégoire. Lapeira came in for third with Aranburu in fourth. The next group came in just 9 seconds later.