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Davide Ballerini (QuickStep-AlpaVinyl) won the Coppa Bernocchi, beating Corbin Strong (Israel Premier Tech) and Stefano Oldani (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in a reduced bunch sprint in Legnano.
QuickStep-AlphaVinyl were prominent throughout a breathless final 50km after they took up the reins on the fifth of seven laps over the climb of the Piccolo Stelvio. Former world champion Julian Alaphilippe and Ilon Van Wilder were key aggressors in the flurry of attack and counter-attack that punctuated the last two laps of the Valle di Olona circuit before the flat run-in back to the finish in Legnano.
Van Wilder led the race onto the final ascent of the Piccolo Stelvio with Einer Rubio (Movistar Team), Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) and early escapee Alan Jousseaume (TotalEnergies), and they would be joined over the other side by Alaphilippe and Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) and Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ).
The terrain was in favour of the chasing peloton by that point, however, and the leaders were eventually reeled in on the fast run towards Legnano.
That didn’t discourage further attacks, however, with Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos) powering a seven-man move featuring Alaphilippe, Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) and Strong off the front with 20km to go. That move never gained more than a handful of seconds over the reforming peloton, however, and they were swept up with 7km to go.
From that point, QuickStep turned their attention to teeing up Ballerini for the sprint, with UAE Team Emirates also serving as an ally of circumstance.
UAE led into the final kilometre on behalf of Matteo Trentin, but the former European champion had to settle for fourth in the sprint, as Ballerini took the spoils ahead of Strong and Oldani.
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