Ilan Van Wilder sits 16th on the GC ahead of the final six stages.
Davide Ballerini brought the second week of his home race to a conclusion by booking a place in the day’s breakaway for the second stage running. Having finished fifth Saturday afternoon, the 2021 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad winner rode away from the peloton together with a huge group on the roads he knows some well, and quickly established a seven-minute gap that put the break in pole position for the victory.
On a course that resembled that of the season’s final Monument, Il Lombardia, with four classified ascents and a short cobbled climb just a few kilometers from the line in Bergamo, Davide was one of the main animators. Supported by his fan club, present on the side of the road around 50 kilometers into the stage, the Italian took some long pulls at the front of the group and even had enough resources to win the first intermediate sprint of the day.
His adventure in the breakaway came to an end only with 34 kilometers to go, on the double-digit gradients of Roncola, where a small group – from which Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) eventually took the win – rode away. Our top finisher was Ilan Van Wilder, who showed again his strong condition by coming home together with the main GC contenders and kept his position in the top 20 going into the rest day.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
