Coppa Agostoni: Davide Formolo solos home in 1-2 for UAE Team Emirates

Davide Formolo collected his first victory in more than three years with a solo success at the Coppa Agostoni, with his teammate Marc Hirschi cruising home in second place to make it a 1-2 domination for UAE Team Emirates.

Formolo was part of a strong early selection in the late-season Italian one-day race, and when Hirschi bridged across over the last of 13 climbs, UAE had the numerical and tactical advantage in a five-man leading group for the 30km run-in.

The group collaborated until the final 11km, at which point Formolo launched his race-winning attack, and was never seen again.

By the final kilometre, victory was assured, and so Hirschi was able to jump from behind to make it two UAE riders crossing the line solo for the top two spots on the podium.

The final one went to Victor Lafay (Cofidis), who sprinted from the remaining three-man chase ahead of Warren Barguil (Arkéa Samsic) and Chris Harper (Jayco AlUla).

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Marc Hirschi celebrates as he takes second place

A statement of intent

We’ve already had the Giro della Toscana and Coppa Sabatini, but Thursday’s Coppa Agostoni marked the start of the main swing of late-season Italian Classics, building towards Il Lombardia on October 7. The Brianza-based race opens the ’Trittico Lombardo’ series of three races, followed by Coppa Bernocchi and Tre Valli Varesine next-midweek before Il Lombardia, although there’s another key test this weekend at the Giro dell’Emilia.

The 195.7km route was largely based on four laps of a circuit that featured the climbs of Colle Brianza (3.3km at 6.5%) and Lissolo (3.6km at 6%), as well as a short uncategorised climb in between, followed by a near-40km run-in to the line.

Going into the final lap, Formolo was part of a six-rider leading group, along with Lafay, Barguil, Harper, Ivan García Cortina (Movistar), and Clément Berthet (AG2R Citroën), although the latter two were dropped on the Colle Brianza. Behind, the reduced peloton shattered, as Hirschi formed part of a counter-attack with a third UAE rider, Diego Ulissi.

Ben O’Connor (AG2R) attacked repeatedly from the chase group the final time up the Lissolo climb, but it was Hirschi who managed to break the elastic with a vicious acceleration over the top. The Swiss champion opened a gap and sprang across the 20-second gap to the lead group, where Formolo had been skipping turns given the presence of his teammates behind.

Read more: Coppa Sabatini: Marc Hirschi comfortably beats Pavel Sivakov in two-up sprint

For the run-in, the chasing group drifted back out to a deficit of more than 30 seconds, and the collaboration was never going to be good enough to bring the leaders back, so they turned to attacking each other on a chaotic run-in. Ulissi was the one who managed to spring clear, and would go on to make it three UAE riders in the top six.

Going into the final 15km, the victory was effectively between five riders, and while Hirschi, who recently won the Coppa Sabatini, might have been favoured given the way he burst across and given Formolo’s longer-range efforts in the break, it was the latter who managed to slip clear.

On a false flat with just over 11km to go, Formolo, whose last win came at the 2020 Critérium du Dauphiné, ripped clear and impressively skipped away from the group. As Hirschi sat on and hesitation crept into the rest of the group, it wasn’t long before it was in the bag.

Formolo crossed the line with half a minute in hand, as Hirschi sprang clear to mop up in what was a statement of intent for UAE Team Emirates, who are attacking these Italian Classics with a fearsome line-up, and they haven’t even released Tadej Pogačar into the fray yet.

© Sprint Cycling Agency

The podium ceremony