Tre Valli Varesine: Ilan Van Wilder surprises favourites to take impressive solo win

Soudal Quick-Step’s young Belgian Ilan Van Wilder surprised all the favourites to win Tre Valli Varesine, attacking with 10km to go and holding off the chasers to take a stunning solo win in Varese on Tuesday.

After following a move from Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) that drew out a select group in the final 15km, the 23-year-old put in a perfectly-timed attack to get the jump on the big names and survive to the line to take his first-ever one-day victory.

Attacking in the final kilometre, Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) took second, whilst Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) sprinted to third from the chasers behind, denying Pogačar and Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) spots on the podium.

Van Wilder becomes the first Belgian to win this race since the great Eddy Merckx in 1968, and delivered Quick-Step their first victory of this Italian block.

“Actually I just wanted to make a tempo, and then I had a gap, so I went full gas,” Van Wilder said at the finish. “With also my sports director [Davide] Bramati going crazy in the car, saying I have to do a TT to the finish, and I did.”

A nine-man, largely Italian breakaway was away for most of the race, with Walter Calzoni (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) emerged as the last-man standing, not only following Wilco Kelderman (Jumbo-Visma) and Warren Barguil (Arkéa Samsic) when they caught the remaining leaders, but also counter-attacking when that trio was caught in a last-ditch attempt to stay away, though it wasn’t to be once the favourites kicked into action.

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Van Wilder makes his attack

High stakes racing in penultimate pre-Lombardia test

Rolling out from Busto Arsizio, the race started relatively calmly with no big moves in the first 30km, but when the peloton hit the Varese circuit, the attacks started and a large breakaway group established itself. The nine-man group contained the likes of Samuele Battistella (Astana Qazaqstan), Gonzalo Serrano (Movistar) and Gianluca Brambilla (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), and they soon built up a lead of over four minutes, with a handful of riders trying to bridge from the peloton but spending the first laps stuck between the break and the bunch.

The situation remained stable for much of the first 100km of the stage, with the chasers eventually reabsorbed into the peloton. Going into the second half of the 195km race, the action started to heat up in the bunch. With 70km to go, a series of accelerations on the seventh lap of the first loop started to stretch out the peloton, with the likes of Jan Tratnik (Jumbo-Visma) and Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) as the main instigators.

At first, a large group was off the front, but soon just a pair of riders emerged, in the form of Frenchmen Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step) and Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers), who pushed on some 30 seconds ahead of the peloton, and were then joined by Aleksandr Vlasov. The impetus in their chase seemed to dry up, though, and the peloton were soon hot on their heels once again, bringing the trio back with 53km to go .

The upping of the pace did see the break’s advantage start to tumble, though, as the gap shrunk to two minutes and the likes of Brambilla and Serrano found themselves among the first to be dropped.

As the race entered the first of two finishing loops, featuring two additional climbs, the gap continued to fall, and the leaders were within 45 seconds of the bunch heading into the final 40km, as the favourites started to make things very hard in the constantly shrinking peloton. The likes of Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates) started to make themselves known on the front, whilst Primož Roglič tried to keep his nose out of the win.

With 37km to go, a big acceleration from Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) started off the next wave of attacks, with Andreas Kron (Lotto-Dstny) getting a gap but soon joined by a strong group of chasers dangling a few seconds ahead of the peloton. Meanwhile, just two riders survived up front, but Francesco Busatto (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) and Walter Calzoni (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) had only a slim lead, and were caught with 28km to go, when a counter-attack from Wilco Kelderman (Jumbo-Visma) and Warren Barguil (Arkéa Samsic) joined them in the lead.

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Pogačar accelerates

Busatto was dropped quickly, but Calzoni stayed with the new leaders, who opened up a new 20-second gap over the fairly disorganised peloton. Heading into the final 23km, UAE Team Emirates finally started to take up the chase more seriously, putting Adam Yates on the front to try to close the gap in absence of any help from Jumbo-Visma.

Eventually the three leaders were caught with 13km to go as Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-EasyPost) led the chase, with Calzoni once again able to stick with the Colombian and soon going past him to go solo again - a huge feat after a long day in the breakaway. Calzoni was soon finally definitively caught, though, and this ignited the next round of attacks, first by Vlasov and then tempting Tadej Pogačar into action with 11km to go.

The acceleration from Pogačar almost immediately drew out a very select group, containing the likes of Roglič, Carapaz and Enric Mas (Movistar). The first rider to successfully attack this lead group was Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal Quick-Step), going away with 10km to go and pulling out a threatening 15-second gap over the chasers. The Belgian was able to hold onto this advantage because of the lack of a clear rider or team to chase behind, and went into the final 3km with a lead.

Richard Carapaz attacked the chase in the final kilometre in a last-ditch attempt to go after Van Wilder, but it proved too little, too late as the Belgian soloed towards victory, securing the biggest one-day win of his career.

Carapaz held off the group to take second, whilst Vlasov sprinted to third, leaving pre-race favourites Pogačar and Roglič to settle for top-10 spots after being caught out by Van Wilder’s perfectly-timed attack.

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The podium ceremony