Just two days after Ethan Vernon (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) claimed his first win of his career in a bunch sprint in the Volta a Catalunya, his Italian teammate Andrea Bagioli netted his own breakthrough debut victory at WorldTour level on the final stage in Barcelona.
As an amateur Bagioli was a winner of races as prestigious like the Ronde de l’Isard – which, he told Italian website Tuttobiciweb allowed him to get the call-up from his current Quick Step squad to turn pro in 2020 – and the Piccolo Giro di Lombardia.
Then by the end of 2021 Bagioli had cllaimed wins in the Tour de L’Ain (ahead of no less a star than Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), the Coppi e Bartali and, thanks to a solo attack, the Drôme Classic in France.
But a WorldTour victory was yet to come his way, until this Sunday when in the Volta a Catalunya a late regrouping of the toughest riders in the peloton allowed Bagioli to take a win in cycling’s top race league.
To his credit, Bagioli admitted that when a late move went clear with most of the top favourites barring Carapaz and he was dropped, he thought all was lost. But then as the hesitating began in the last two kilometres, first Carapaz and Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic) and then a bigger group reformed on the front and it was game on for the young Italian.
“I was hoping that I could do something today, because these last hilly laps were perfect for me,” Bagioli told a small group of reporters later. “So on Friday and Saturday I tried to save as much energy as I could.
“I got dropped the last time over the Montjuic climb, but then my group came back in the last 900 metres and I was able to win.
“Honestly, I thought that when that attack went, it was going to stay away to the finish. But then [Robert] Gesink (Jumbo-Visma) accelerated hard for [Sam] Oomen and it all came back together again.”
As Bagioli said, taking a win of this calibre meant a lot both for him personally and for his team after a rough start to the race.
“We lost a number of teammates in the race with sickness, but thanks to this victory and Ethan’s on Friday, it’s turned out to be a good week for us,” he concluded.
Bagioli told Tuttobiciweb that he will go on to the Ardennes Classics this April, racing for Julian Alaphilippe, before heading to the Giro d’Italia in May. But with his victory in Catalonia, for a young racer like Bagioli, the first half of 2022 is already looking like a resounding success.
