Echelon racing in Italy is as rare as pineapple on a Naples pizza and an afternoon cappuccino in a Milan bar but the bad weather battering this year's Tirreno-Adriatico twice sparked 'un ventaglio' - as Italians call echelons - inspiring some spectacular racing.
"We wanted to win the stage, so we went for it," race leader Filippo Ganna of Ineos Grenadiers said, after ensuring he was in both echelons and driving them along in search of a stage win.
The first echelon formed with 80km to go on the high plain in the exposed Abruzzo Apennines when a group of 30 riders, including Ganna, Tom Pidcock (Q36.5), Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) forged ahead, leaving Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech), Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) and eventual stage winner Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) scattered in the cross winds.
A second split came after the descent to the now dry Lago di Fucino plain. A rain storm was approaching and the wind flew across the race at 25km/h.
Ganna was again the front echelon that surged clear with 45km to race in pursuit of the early attack, along with teammate Laurence De Plus, Ayuso and his UAE teammates Isaac del Toro and Felix Großschartner, and Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ).
Gee and Yates were still behind the front peloton at this point, with the final hour of racing turning into a Flemish-style pursuit match that could have gone any way.
Ganna was super strong, so much so that Ayuso even struggled to come through off his heel to do a turn. Echelons and cold rain are not the Spaniard’s preferred conditions as he tries to win this year's Tirreno-Adriatico.
"It was a very stressful day but we made it through," Ayuso said before dashing to his warm team bus.
“In one way I enjoyed it because I avoided the stress of the chase behind, but then there were a lot of things that could have gone wrong, I could have crashed or punctured easily.
"It was a stressful moment at the top of the climb because we knew there was a long down hill and it could have split again. It did and when it happened there were only five or six of us and the group stayed close."
The two finishing circuits around Trasacco and a drop in the wind helped the front group of chasers catch the Ganna and Ayuso echelon attack. However, Gee, Yates, Kooij and the rest of the 80-rider front group needed a huge effort from their teammates to close the gap. Israel-Premier Tech did a lot of work for Gee and Soudal-QuickStep rode for Paul Magnier and a sprint finish.
Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) launched a late solo attack to join the remains of the break but more Milan-San Remo cat and mouse games by Ganna and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceninck) meant they were caught in sight of the line in Trasacco.
"We were unlucky, with four or five more strong riders, the stage would have been a very different stage," Ganna argued.
"A lot of riders sat on and just waited for the sprint, others attacked on the climbs on the descent. Everyone has their own tactics, that's cycling."
On Wednesday Van der Poel chased down Ganna's late solo attack. On the last short climb near Trasacco today, Ganna returned the favour, closing down a surge by Van der Poel, as the two continued to play cat and mouse before Milan-San Remo.
"He came after me yesterday, today I went after him," Ganna said with a mischievous smile.
"With a lap to go I asked him if he wanted to attack together but he said he didn't feel great, yet he then went hard on the climb and hurt me."
Kooij won the sprint in Trasacco and Gee and others let out a huge sigh of relief as they finished in the same time as Ayuso and the other GC contenders.
The Canadian is still in contention for overall victory or a podium spot as Tirreno-Adriatico heads into the Le Marche steep climbs on Friday and then south in Umbria for the Frontignano mountain finish on Saturday.
Ayuso is 22 seconds down on race leader Ganna, with Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) seven seconds down on Ayuso, with Gee at 12 seconds and Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla) at 22 seconds.
If the rare Italian echelon attacks had stayed away, the gaps could have been minutes rather than seconds.
