Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani) confirmed that he is in excellent form for the August season when he took his fourth win in less than a month at the Coppa Agostoni. In a dramatic finale where Miguel Angel Benito (Caja Rural) was caught on the finishing straight, the Italian emerged as the fastest in the 40-rider sprint. Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) and Francesco Gavazzi (Androni) completed the podium.

After his breakthrough season in 2014, Sonny Colbrelli was expected to reach new heights in 2015 but a frustrating first half of the year left him completely empty-handed. It was the Tour du Limousin that signaled his return to form as the Italian puncheur won a stage and the overall in the French race.

This year it seems that the French race has again marked a turning point for the Italian. After his fantastic start to the year that saw him finish on the podium in the Amstel Gold Race, he was set back by pneumonia after the Giro d’Italia and the illness made for a difficult start to the second part of the year. However, Limousin again turns out to be a happy hunting ground for Colbrelli as he left the race with two stage wins and second place overall.

Colbrelli confirmed his form when he won the hilly final stage of the Tour du Poitou-Charentes and after signing a contract with the Bahrain-Merida team for 2017, he has set his sights on the Italian autumn classics where he hopes to help Bardiani win the overall Coppa Italia. Yesterday he showed his form when he went on the attack in the relatively flat Coppa Bernocchi and today he again underlined his excellent form by winning Coppa Agostoni.

The second race in the Trittico Lombardo series is much hillier than Wednesday’s race and is traditionally decided in a reduced bunch sprint. That makes it a perfect race for Colbrelli and he did everything right to come away with the win. He even went on the attack on the Lissolo climb where he tried to follow Gianni Moscon and Fabio Aru and still had enough left in the tank to win the 40-rider sprint after Miguel Angel Benito had been caught on the finishing straight.

The 70th edition of the Coppa Agostoni was held on a 199km course that both started and finished in Lissone. First the riders tackled a lumpy circuit of around 40km which included a small climb to Capriano and several small ascents. Back in Lissone, the peloton turned around to head back into the hills where the main challenge awaited. The riders did four laps of the very hilly Lissolo circuit which included no less than three climbs and barely a single metre of flat roads. First up was the Sirtori climb which was followed by the Colle Brianza (3.5km, 6.5%). Finally, the riders tackled the climb of Lissolo (2.5km, 9.3%). From the top of the final passage of Lissolo, there were still 43.6km to go and they were mainly downhill. The riders descended back to Lissone where ended the race by doing two laps of a completely flat 9.8km circuit.

Emanuel Kiserlovski (Meridiana) and Marco Zanotti (Parkhotel) were the only non-starters when the peloton gathered under a rainy and grey sky. That didn’t dampen the attacking spirit as the start was extremely fast with numerous attacks. During the first 20km, no move managed to establish any kind of significant lead.

Finally, 14 riders managed to get clear when Lukaz Owsian (CCC Sprandi), Fausto Masnada (Lampre - Merida), Miguel Angel Benito, Hector Saez (Caja Rural - RGA), Alexander Kolobnev, Roman Kustadinchev (Gazprom - RusVelo), Pier Paolo De Negri, Giacomo Berlato (NIPPO - Fantini), Andrea Pasqualon (Team Roth), Elie Gesbert (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) ,Nichola Genovese, Giorgio Bocchiola (D'Amico - Bottecchia), Filippo Fortin (GM) and Nicola Gaffurini (Norda - MgKVis) managed to build an advantage of 30 seconds. Bardiani had missed the move and so they started to chase hard. However, they slowly lost the battle and when they finally say up, the gap started to widen rapidly.

When the gap had gone out to more than three minutes, the fast pace was already taking its toll on Berlato who was dropped and picked up by the peloton. Meanwhile, the leaders continued to press on and they had extended their advantage to 4.32 at the end of the first hour during which they had covered 45.3km. The gap briefly stabilized but as they approached the Lissolo circuit, the escapees again started to gain ground, pushing the gap out to 5.30 as they hit the circuit.

As the fight for position in the peloton intensified, a crash brought down Chun Kai Feng, Valerio Conti (Lampre-Merida), Yuma Koishi (Nipopo) and Luca Covili (Italy). That allowed the escapees to increase the gap to 5.50 before the Italian national team took control.

At the end of the second hour, the front group had averaged 41.25km/h and they hit the Lissolo climb with an advantage of around 5.30. At the top, the national team had reduced it to 4.47 and as they continued to ride hard, the escapees only had an advantage of 4.11 at the 100km mark.

The climbs started to take their toll as first Gesbert and then Bocchiola were dropped from the break. As they tackled Lissolo for the second time, Genovese was dropped and then Fortin, De Negri, Kustandinchev and Gaffurini also lost contact. In the peloton, Elia Viviani and Giovanni Visconti did the work for the national team but the faster pace allowed the escapees to reopen their advantage which was 5.09 at the end of the second lap and the third hour where the average speed had dropped to 39.150km/h

The gap even went out to 5.40 and this was the signal for the national team to react. Gianni Moscon attacked together with Valerio Conti (Lampre-Merida) and they were soon joined by  Daniel Martinez (Wilier). However, they were brought back after just a few kilmetres of freedom.

Owsian, Masnada, Benito, Saez, Kolobnev and Pasqualon still had an advantage of more than four minutes when they started the final lap where the peloton had been split in two, with 36 seconds separating the two groups. As soon as they started to climb, Danilo Celano (Amore e Vita) took off in pursuit and he managed to build an advantage of 26 seconds as they approached Lissolo for the final time. At this point, the peloton was still 3.36 behind.

Astana took control in the peloton and managed to push the gap to the second bunch out to almost a minute. Their fast pace neutralized Celano’s attempt and reduced the gap to only 2.19. Nonetheless, the second peloton was in strong comeback and as they reached the top of Colle Brianza for the final time, they were only 12 seconds behind the main group.

With 46km to go, the gap was down to just 1.08 and it was only 41 seconds when they hit Lissolo for the final time. Here Moscon and Fabio Aru (Astana) launched the expected attack while Visconti, Francesco Gavazzi, Rodolfo Torres, Egan Bernal (Androni) and Ricardo Vilela (Caja Rural) took off in pursuit. Vilela and Bernal rejoined Moscon and Aru and they quartet crested the summit 27 seconds behind the six leaders. Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani) and Gavazzi were a little further back while the peloton was 57 seconds behind the front group.

The peloton caught the Aru quartet on the descent and reduced the gap to 27 seconds under the impetus of Androni. However, they didn’t want to catch the break too early and as they headed back towards Lissone, they allowed the gap to go out to 54 seconds. Meanwhile, Giacomo Nizzolo (Italy) and Filippo Pozzato (Wilier) abandoned.

The sun came out as they approached the finish and it was still Androni keeping the situation under control. At the first passage of the line, they had reduced the gap to 30 seconds and as they tackled the first lap of the circuit.

Androni took back 15 seconds during the first lap, crossing the line again 16 seconds behind the leaders. As the fight for position intensified, the gap came further down and when it was less than 10 seconds, Benito made a solo attack.

Impressively, the lone Spaniard still had an 8-second advantage with 2km to go and it was still 7 seconds at the flamme rouge. However, he was unable to keep the peloton at bay and was caught on the finishing straight. Instead, the 40-rider peloton sprinted for the win and here Colbrelli beat Diego Ulissi and Francesco Gavazzi to take his first Italian win of the season.

With Coppa Agostoni done and dusted, the attention turns to Saturday’s Memorial Marco Pantani. The third and final race in the Trittico Lombardo race series is Tre Valli Varesine which will be held on September 27.