Primoz Roglic won Giro dell’Emilia, to position himself as favourite for next week’s Il Lombardia.
The victory marked his second success of the year on the climb’s steep slopes, having also won the Giro d’Italia’s opening time trial which finished in the same location.
Michael Woods (EF Education First) launched the first meaningful move as the gradient maxed out at 1.5km to the line and the group split. Roglic was quick to respond to the Canadian’s move and continued to accelerate straight past him.
Sergio Higuita (EF Education First) had been the next to respond to Wood’s initial acceleration and caught his teammate, and the two set off in pursuit. However, Roglic was unstoppable and continued to grow his gap before crossing the line alone 15sec ahead of the Canadian.
“We can all be very happy with today’s result. This victory would not have been possible without my teammates,” said Roglic.
Tour de France winner Egan Bernal finished in ninth position, 28sec off the pace.
Giro dell’Emilia 2019 results:
| 1 | Primoz Roglic (Jumbo – Visma) | 5:08:08 |
| 2 | Michael Woods (EF Education First) | +14” |
| 3 | Sergio Higuita (EF Education First) | ,, |
| 4 | Bauke Mollema (Trek – Segafredo) | +16” |
| 5 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | ,, |
| 6 | Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) | +20” |
| 7 | Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) | +23” |
| 8 | Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) | ,, |
| 9 | Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) | +27” |
| 10 | Gianluca Brambilla (Trek – Segafredo) | +31” |
