Gran Piemonte 2024

October 10, 2024 For 2024, Gran Piemonte is 182KM with four main obstacles. Passo della Colma comes first, then the three smaller climbs of Cremosina, Traversagna and Maggiora. Maggiora tops out 7KM before a quick downhill to the finish in Borgomanero. The sun finally came out and the roads were dry for the four riders that made their way into the breakaway, Andrii Ponomar of Corratec-Vini Fantini, Nickolas Zukowsky of Q36.5, Francisco Muñoz of Polti Kometa, and Luca Colnaghi of Bardiani CSF-Faizanè. Their lead was nearly 5 minutes with 87KM to go with EF-Education EasyPost and Alpecin-Deceuninck doing the chasing. With 2KM to the top of the Passo della Colma, DSM-Firmenich had taken over in the peloton and brought the gap to 2 minutes 30 seconds. Zukowsky was off solo to stay in front as long as possible. Muñoz got back to Zukowsky before the top but in the bunch, groups were splitting off the front. Rain had fallen near the top and the descent was wet with standing water in spots. The riders hit the bottom of the descent with 50KM to go on the gorgeous shores of Lake Orta. Ponomar re-joined the two leaders with the next group on the road of around 15 riders at 20 seconds and a third group containing a few sprinters at 1 minute 45 seconds. Zukowsky, Ponomar, and Muñoz were caught at the base of Cremosina with 45KM to go. Cremosina was a shallow climb at just 3% and with a group as large as this attacks started almost immediately. Julien Bernard of Lidl-Trek was first to go off. He was caught and countered at 42.5KM to go by Neilson Powless of EF-Education EasyPost. At 33KM to go, a large chase group joined the second group on the road to make nearly 40 riders in group two. Powless went over the Traversagna climb with just 16 seconds and the catch looked inevitable. Israel-Premier Tech and Lidl-Trek were doing the work but with just under 14KM to go, Sam Oomen of Lidl-Trek hit the deck on a sweeping left bend, also taking down Bernard which slowed the progress of the chase. As Powless crossed the finish line with 1 lap and 11.4KM to go on the local circuit, he had extended his lead to 36 seconds. Maggiora came and went but Powless still was not caught and held 12 seconds. Down Maggiora and through final 5 flat kilometers, the gap stayed over 15 seconds. Powless crossed the line with his hands up as the bunch thundered 100M behind. Corbin Strong of Israel-Premier Tech took the sprint for second place, just beating out the Spanish Champion Alex Aranburu of Movistar into third.