Arnaud Démare wins Milano-Torino

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Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) delivered a fine sprint to claim victory at Milano-Torino ahead of Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) and a fast-closing Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma).

The Frenchman's victory underscored his credentials for Milan-San Remo on Saturday, while the Strade Bianche winner Van Aert's late surge was a further indication of his sparkling form ahead of the week's main event.

A crash that briefly split the peloton with 8km to go made for a breathless finale, but Démare's Groupama-FDJ squad was sufficiently organised to lead into the final kilometre, although it was Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) who opened the sprint with an effort from distance. The three-time world champion faded to fourth in the closing metres, however, as Démare streaked past and then held off Ewan to claim the spoils.

With Milano-Torino falling just three days before La Classicissima on the revised UCI calendar, the route of the event was altered accordingly, with the uphill finale in Superga removed in favour of a pan flat run to Stupinigi that afforded Démare to emulate his teammate Thibaut Pinot as a winner of the race.

"The calendar was a bit thrown out by the current situation, but it's good to be racing again and I had a very good return to competition at the Vuelta a Burgos," Démare said. "The team was very good, and we knew today was a good chance for us.

"We really know one another very well, and that's a good thing. We did a three-week camp and the whole team was in good form, Burgos confirmed that. We're not afraid of anyone. I feel very well."

A bunch finish was always the likely outcome in Stupinigi, site of the 18th-century hunting lodge of the House of Savoy, and the race largely followed the anticipated script, though there was late drama when several riders came down in a crash after Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck-QuickStep) clipped a traffic island on the run-in. Sam Bennett also lost Michael Mørkøv in the incident – though, unlike Lampaert, the Dane was able to finish the race – and the Irish champion sat up in the finishing straight to place outside the top 10.

He was not the only fast man left with too much ground to recoup in the finishing straight, with with Nacer Bouhanni (Arkéa-Samsic) and Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) having to settle for 6th and 7th, respectively. They will hope for better at Milan-San Remo on Saturday. Démare, winner in 2016 and third in 2018, has already shown his pedigree on the Via Roma. His turn of pace in Stupinigi was an indication of his form – but so, too, was Van Aert's.

"It's one of my very big ambitions, I'm not going to hide that," Démare said. "The team is good and I feel good."

How it unfolded

Milano-Torino has oscillated between Spring and Autumn for much of its history, but the revised 2020 season saw the oldest extant bicycle race in the world shift to an August date as the calendar was hastily rearranged around the rescheduled Classics and Grand Tours.

This summertime Milano-Torino was not an entirely new departure. The first-ever edition was held in May 1876, after all, and in its intermittent early history, the event was held in the warmer months, before settling on a firmer, pre-Milan-San Remo slot in the 1930s.

In more recent times, Milano-Torino has largely – though not exclusively – been part of the rosy-hued preamble to the grand finale of the Italian season, Il Lombardia, with a route carefully tailored to match. Since its return to the calendar after a four-year hiatus in 2012, the finish line had been perched upon the hill of Superga overlooking Turin.

With Milano-Torino stitched into the 2020 calendar ahead of Saturday's Milan-San Remo, however, the route was altered to fit the circumstances. Superga was excised from the parcours, with the gruppo only gently skirting the hills of Monferrato en route to the Piemontese capital.

A bunch sprint seemed preordained when the peloton assembled at the start in Mesero, just west of Milan, but that didn't deter a determined group of attackers forging clear inside the opening 20km.

Andrea Garosio (Vini Zabù-KTM), Manuele Boaro (Astana), Davide Villella (Movistar), Gijs Van Hoecke (CCC), Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè) and Samuele Rivi (Italy) established a maximum buffer of 7 minutes after 50km before the sprinters' teams began to bring in the hem of their advantage.

Deceuninck-QuickStep, Lotto Soudal, Groupama-FDJ, Arkéa-Samsic, Bora-Hansgrohe and UAE Team Emirates all contributed to the pursuit at various points, an arrangement that seemed to suit all parties. The sprinters were effectively guaranteed their shot at victory at Stupinigi, while men like Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) were able to bank 200, brisk kilometres of racing in agreeable sunshine as they build towards Milan-San Remo at the weekend.

The break's advantage began to unravel gently as the race passed through the wine country in the hinterland of Asti and their lead was a threadbare 1:45 by the time they reached the final 40km. Garosio sat up shortly afterwards, and though his five erstwhile companions looked to delay the inevitable, their lead had shrunk to within a minute with 20km remaining.

The break fragmented shortly afterwards, when Samuele Rivi, the 22-year-old of the Italian national team attacked, bringing the strongman of the move, Manuele Boaro, with him. Boaro pressed on alone with 11km to go, by which point his lead had slipped to just 27 seconds and he was swept up soon afterwards.

A mass sprint ensued. Démare hit all the right lines ahead of Milan-San Remo, but in this singular season, all will have benefited from the dress rehearsal.

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