Recently crowned Time Trial World and double Olympic Champion Remco Evenepoel will be lining up at the Coppa Bernocchi on Monday looking to repeat his victory at the one-day Italian race, in the lead-up for the final European WorldTour race of the season, Il Lombardia next weekend.
After being active early in the prestigious Giro dell’Emilia yesterday, the Soudal-QuickStep rider initiated the move that was countered by Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) who then took off for a longe-range solo flyer to victory. Surprisingly, Evenepoel who seemed to be the most likely rider to challenge the world champion, pulled out of the race with around 25km to go.
The miserable wet conditions caused debris to settle in his eye, and a video posted showed his team staff trying to wash his left eye at the finish line.
“Things didn’t go as planned for us in Emilia, but that’s cycling, and this only motivates us even more for Monday,” said Soudal Quick-Step sports director Davide Bramati in a team release.
“In the past three seasons, we won twice and racked up a total of four podium finishes in Bernocchi, so it goes without saying this is a race we like a lot and where we hope to be again in contention for a good result, on what will be a demanding and quite selective parcours.”
Three years ago at Coppa Bernocchi, after spending the entire day in the break, Evenepoel attacked from 31km to go, dropped his companions and soloed to what was at that time his first victory in a one-day race on Italian soil.
The 174.3km Coppa Bernocchi starts and ends with a flat section in Legnano, with the most challenging part of the race being seven laps of a hilly circuit that includes the Piccolo Stelvio climb (1.7km at 5.8%).
Evenepoel will have to contend with Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates). The Vuelta a España winner will be taking the start for the first time in his career, while Hirschi, has been on a tear, taking six wins in just a month and a half, and his ninth overall victory this year. On Sunday, the Swiss rider outsprinted his breakaway rivals to secure victory in the Coppa Agostoni-Giro delle Brianze in Lissone.
The Coppa Bernocchi is the third event in the short but intense period of racing across Italy leading up to the final Monument of the year, Il Lombardia.
