It was a hard race today in GranPiemonte with heavy rain for the 185km. Eduard Grosu (Nippo-Vini Fantini) was close to the podium with a final 4th place. His teammate Giacomo Berlato was in the break of the day.

At the end of a long day of rain, Eduard Grosu was third in the sprint for second. The winner was Jan Bakelants with a final attack which Pierpaolo De Negri tried to join. The rider fromthe French team arrived alone with a few seconds of advantage on the group. With his fourth place, Grosu made it a good day for Nippo.

In the morning an important escape of 13 riders was formed started, including Felline (Trek) who was one of the favorites and the last one to give up. At the start, Giacomo Berlato was also in the group but was one of the first to get dropped.

“I’m not so happy with the result because after 185km of hard racing, it is a pity to miss the podium by a few metres. But this is cycling, we will try again," Grosu said.

“Not everyone know that Eduard was ill until yesterday and not sure to start the race," sports director Stefano Giuliani said. "Today, with such kind of rain, to end this race was already a result with his condition. If he would have been on the podium, it would have been incredible. The team have done a good race, we had to put a rider in the morning escape and we did so with Berlato. Damiano Cunego was not lucky with two punctures in a difficult part of the race, but overall it was a good day for us.”