The home of the Giro and Il Lombardia, one of the great cycling nations, Italy is most certainly not hurting for puncheurs. That makes this a tough race to call, but one might be forgiven for putting all their chips on Davide FORMOLO. The only rider who can match his pace on the climbs is Gianni MOSCON, but where the former is capable of maintaining a high tempo even on longer climbs the latter is confined to shorter bursts. Complicating the matter is that neither of the two major favourites have any teammates joining them, in fact the only team to bring along a substantial Italian host is Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo; it is probably the second title sponsor doing the heavy lifting in this regard. This leaves open the question of who will control the attacks, of which we expect a great number: the majority of the teams in attendance have brought along a puncheur, rouleur or climber of sneaking a victory if left unattended.
Trying to make use of his team's numbers, Jakub MARECZKO begins pushing the pace as soon as the riders leave the neutral zone. He eventually calls up Niccolo BONIFAZIO to start rotating through. They will be hoping that Nicola BAGIOLI has good legs today. The hard pace and the heavy crosswinds of 30 km/h mean that splits rapidly open and close, those who were at the back seem to be have left behind. The most significant rider to lose out is Alexander KONYCHEV, so nothing decisive yet.
The pace slows to the point that Valerio CONTI is willing to start contributing at the front. At the base of the penultimate climb Matteo SOBRERO accelerates, he must be hoping that everybody else has fallen asleep. The first two names following him aren't that exciting either: both Andrea DAL COL and Luca STERBINI ought to be saving their energy for the TT. More dangerous are those on the tail of this attack. Alberto BETTIOL sensed an opportunity, but he was of sufficient calibre to demand that Davide FORMOLO responded. He was, in turn, marked closely by Gianni MOSCON and Fausto MASNADA. SOBRERO's dreams of escaping unnoticed were quashed.
Indeed, SOBRERO and DAL COL gave up the ghost as soon as they realised who was with them. STERBINI, despite knowing he couldn't win, was happy to keep going. He wasn't able to keep CONTI from dragging this attack back in; but that just prompted another one, this time from Pierre Paolo PENASA. Giovanni CARBONI thinks this is the move to follow and bridges across, bringing N BAGIOLI, BETTIOL and FORMOLO along with him. MASNADA tried to go with them again, but his legs couldn't take it.
With just over 10 kilometres left in the race this looked like the decisive move. Manuel SENNI made an effort to bridge across. He was joined by Davide BALLERINI and, surprisingly, KONYCHEV, who had somehow made his way back to the front of the race. They quickly collected MASNADA, before latching on to the back of the leaders on the final descent. MOSCON had taken charge of the chasing pack.
With the assistance of CONTI, the attack was momentarily neutralised only for the peace to be immediately disturbed by BALLERINI and SENNI launching simultaneous attacks on opposite sides of the road. PENASA was glued to the wheel of the latter. Filippo GANNA isn't happy with this state of affairs and takes it upon himself to chase after them. Despite his best efforts the trio enter the final climb with a lead of 20".
BONIFAZIO is the first to launch, getting out ahead of his competition. None of the leaders respond, even as the gap begins to close. Are they busy playing games amongst themselves? No, they are all completely cooked! They don't have the energy to hold everybody else off, but nor does BONIFAZIO have the energy to surpass them! Just as he reaches BALLERINI's back wheel the sprinter sits up. There is everything to play for in this final kilometre.
Alberto BETTIOL threads the needle. The trio of escapees might have slowed, but they aren't willing to get out of the way of those coming up behind them. FORMOLO and MOSCON have been boxed in on the right, sapping them of any momentum. Alberto DAINESE has managed to hold on to BETTIOL's wheel and Giovanni ALEOTTI has managed to find space up against the barriers. I think the win is going to be decided between these three.
I was wrong. All of them had mistimed it, they weren't able to maintain their pace all the way to the line. Where they failed Andrea BAGIOLI succeeded. This young man isn't even at the peak of his powers yet but he's already staked his claim as Italy's best puncheur.
Having already secured one jersey, might it be possible that BAGIOLI also takes the other? It would've been quite a surprise, but unfortunately for his manager the possibility never really arose. He didn't even make it into the hotseat, crossing the line with a time that was 50" slower than Giovanni ALEOTTI's early benchmark of 1h02'25".
Having already suffered through disappointment in the road race, things didn't improve for MOSCON in the timetrial. Admittedly, he isn't known for his prowess in this discipline, so a time of 1h05'10" isn't too terrible
Davide FORMOLO was the favourite this morning. In light of the failure to live up to that billing, a good result this evening might have built his credentials as a stage racer, rather than a pure puncheur. Much to his misfortune he couldn't even match ALEOTTI's time; so the only credentials he has built at this year's national championships are those of a failure.
The times rapidly tumbled down, with each rider faster than the previous one. However, eventually the flood of riders would come to and end, the point would be reached where there was nobody faster to be found. Is anybody suprised that the rider at the end of this chain was none other than Filippo GANNA? Maybe so given his previous results in this competition, but with Mattia CATTANEO on the decline and Luca STERBINI unable to repeat his form from past editions there was nobody to compete with GANNA's time of 1h'00'05".
ITALIAN ROAD RACE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP 
