Mikel Landa put in a good effort in his first race with the team since La Vuelta.
Saturday afternoon came with one of the most prestigious Italian semi-classics of the season, the Giro dell’Emilia, which once again culminated on the steep and punishing slopes of San Luca, an emblematic climb emblematic not just for the world of cycling, but also for Bologna, the city that is home to the oldest university in continuous operation in the world, founded in 1088, at a time that no European country had an organized legal system.
The first part of the race belonged to a breakaway of just five riders, who despite their best efforts couldn’t take their maximum gap over the three-minute mark. As soon as the 199km race approached the circuit built around the San Luca hill, the peloton moved into a different speed and caught the attackers, before setting a hard tempo that whittled down the group to around a dozen riders for the last two ascents of the race.
As it’s usually the case, everything was decided in the final two kilometers, where two riders accelerated and built a small gap that they managed to keep until the end, where Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) took the victory. Soudal Quick-Step’s best-placed rider at this 108th edition of the Giro dell’Emilia was Mikel Landa, who concluded a strong 13th in what was just his second appearance of the season in a one-day race.
Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images
