Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani) confirmed his status as the leading Italian one-day racer when he claimed a dominant win at Tre Valli Varesine. After he has been part of a four-rider group that was caught with less than one kilometre to go, the Italian still had enough left to beat Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) and Francesco Gavazzi (Androni) in a 15-rider sprint to claim his third victory in an Italian one-day race in September.

Two years ago Sonny Colbrelli completely dominated the Italian autumn classics. The Italian won Memorial Marco Panti, GP di Prato and Coppa Sabatini and the great results earned him leadership of the Italian team at the World Championships.

After a disappointing 2015 season, Colbrelli has been absolutely flying throughout the entire 2016 season, with his third place at Amstel Gold Race being his big breakthrough at the WorldTour level. With the Italian autumn scene made up of races tailor-made for his characteristics, he was always going to be the man to beat in the late-season classics and he has turned out to be totally unstoppable, completely dominating the races like he did two years ago.

After three wins in France in August, Colbrelli kicked things off when he won the reduced bunch sprint at Copa Agostoni. One week later he powered to victory in the uphill sprint at Coppa Sabatini and after helping his teammate Nicola Ruffoni win GP Beghelli, he came out on top in today’s Tre Valli Varesine.

Colbrelli proved that he is both an excellent climber and a very fast sprinter when he beat the star-studded field in the Italian classic. He was part of a four-rider group that escaped on the final climb where he joined forces with Diego Ulissi, Francesco Gavazzi and Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale). As they failed to cooperate, they were caught by around 10 riders and it all came down to a sprint. Here Colbrelli still had enough left to easily beat Ulissi and Gavazzi.

The 96th edition of Tre Vallia Vresinie was held on a 192.89km course that started in Saronno from where the riders will travelled along flat toads towards Varese. After 55km of racing, they tackled the climb to Orino before descending to Varese where they crossed the line for the first time at the 77.69km mark.

The final part of the race consisted of 9 laps of the 12.8km circuit. After just 1km, the riders tackled the small Montello climb (2.25km, 4.5%) before they took on a long descent. With 3.6km to go, the peloton hit a 2.9km climb that averaged 3.9%. The top came with 1km to go, and from there it was a flat run to the finish, with the final turn coming 800m from the line.

The riders had excellent conditions as they gathered for the start, and as always in Italian one-day races they kicked the race off in an aggressive fashion. Androni were very active, but the first rider to get a bigger gap was Nicola Boem (Bardiani). After 20km of racing, he was joined by seven riders, but the peloton was not happy with the situation and brought it back together. In the hectic phase, there was a crash with riders from Androni, Roth and Stölting, but everyone could continue the race.

Astana took control before Eduard Grosu (Nippo - Fantini), Zakkari Dempster (Bora - Argon18) and Igor Boev (Gazprom - RusVelo) took off and it turned out to be the perfect combination. After 32km of racing, they had built a gap of 1.26, and after a first hour with an average speed of 43.8km/h , it had gone out to 6 minutes.

No one took the initiative in the peloton and so the advantage reached 9.00 before Topsport Vlaanderen took control after 58km of racing. The chase was not intense, and the gap reached a maximum of 9.37, in the Belgian team increased the speed. At the 67km mark, they had reduced the gap to 8.02.

Cannondale joined Topsport Vlaanderen and together they ensured that the break was only 6.40 at the first passage of the finish line. Here one of the outsiders, Matteo Busato (Wilier), abandoned together with Delio Fernandez (Delko) after two hours where the average speed had dropped to 42.2km/h.

After the first lap, the gap was 5.04 and it was still Cannonale and Topsport Vlaanderen setting the pace. Andre Cardoso and Toms Skujins led the peloton across the line for the American team, and they were still in front after the second lap where the lead was only 2.15.

In the third lap, Boem was involved in a minor crash, but otherwise there was not much action. Topsport Vlaanderen and Cannondale kept its lead stable at around 2 minutes.

Cardoso and Skujins set the pace on the fourth lap and the first part of the fifth lap where the attacking started. On the second climb, Moreno Moser (Cannondale) attacked and he was joined by Alessandro Vanotti (Astana). However, when Michael Albasini (Orica-BikeExchange) tried to close it down, he had the rest of the peloton in tow.

Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin) and Jeremy Maison (FDJ) made a failed attack before Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) gave it a shot. Moser followed and later a six-rider group with Barguil and Amets Txurruka (Orica-BikeExchange made the junction. However, the group was brought back as they started the fifth lap.

The escapees were just a few seconds ahead as they hit the Montello climb again where Astana took control with Tanel Kangert. He brought the break back before the attacking started again. Michael Woods (Cannondale) surged clear and as he approached the top, Diego Rosa (Astana) and Ricardo Carapaz (Movistar) joined him. Manuele Mori (Lampre-Merida) also made the junction but the group was brought back as they headed down the descent.

When Rosa slowed down, Alessandro De Marchi (BMC) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) attacked. Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) joined them and later Tom-Jelte Slagter (Cannondale) also made it across. Finally, Simone Velasco (Bardiani) and Jeremy Roy (FDJ) made it too and so a sextet had gathered as they hit the climb to the finish.

Ivan Santaromita (Italy) used the ascent to join the leaders and Magnus Cort (Orica-BikeExchange) and Micael Gogl (Tinkoff) made it just as they reached the top. Movistar led the chase with Carlos Betancyr and then sent Dayer Quintana (Movistar) off in an attack. The Colombian made the junction just after the start of the seventh lap.

Giant-Alpecin had missed the move and so started to chase with Simon Geschke. A big turn by Tobias Ludvigsson managed to shut the break down as they went up the Montello climb and the subsequent attack from De Marchi didn’t work out.

Slagter attacked over the top and was joined by Cort. Fuglsang, Velasco, Damiano Cunego (Nippo), Salvatore Puccio (Italy), Kenny Elissonde (FDJ), Barguil, De Marchi, Sergey Firsanov (Gazprom) and Maciej Paterski (CCC) joined them on the descent and as the 11 riders increased the advantage, Lampre-Merida and Movistar started to chase.

The hard work paid off as the break was caught at the bottom of the second climb where Elissonde and Barguil went on the attack. However, BMC started to ride hard with Damiano Caruso and so they never got much of an advantage. Kanstantsin Siutsou (Dimension Data), Txurruka and Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida) were next to try but Caruso shut it down immediately. He also reacted to another attempt from Txurruka.

Caruso led the peloton across the line to start the penultimate lap and then BMC took full control with Manuel Senni, Michael Schär and the Italian. The American team set the pace on the ascent and didn’t respond when Romain Combaud (Delko) attacked over the top. The BMC trio easily brought the Frenchman back on the descent.

Schär set the pace as they headed up the final climb for the 8th time and again he didn’t respond when Remy Di Gregorio (Delko) attacked. Manuel Bongiorno (Bardiani) took off in pursuit and was just a few seconds behind as they started the final lap.

Schär still set the pace in the 60-rider peloton as they hit the Montello climb for the final time and then Senni took over. He brought both attackers back and then Caruso took over.

Fabio Aru 8Astana) launched an attack as they hit the steepest part and was joined by Davide Villella (Cannondale), De Marchi and Gianluca Bambilla (Italy). They didn’t get clear but when Villella went again, a small gap opened up. Aru, De Marchi, Brambilla, Sebastien Reichenbach (FDJ) and a Movistar rider joined him but the sextet was caught on the descent.

Aru led the group onto a flatter section where Reichenbach tried to attack. Rosa and Kristian Sbaragli (Dimension Data) joined him but with 7km to go, it was back together.

Astana took control with Rosa and Nibali before Preben Van Hecke took over for Topsport Vlaanderen. Lampre-Merida then lined up three riders, with Mori leading the Italians own the descent.

Petilli took a huge turn on the lower slopes of the climb before Mori set Ulissi up for his attack. Only Jens Keukeleire (Orica-BikeExchange could follow but soon Brambilla and Kristian Sbaragli (Dimension Data) joined them. Aru, Rigoberto Uran and Elissonde gave chase but only the Colombian could make the junction.

Brambilla and Ulissi both tried to get clear but it all came back together. Just as the junction was made, Brambilla went again and this time only Uran could follow. The Colombian countered and as Brambilla couldn’t hold his wheel, he passed the flamme rouge with a small advantage over a 7-rider group that included the likes of Colbrelli, Reichenbach, Elissonde, Franco Pellizotti, Gavazzi and Brambilla.

Pellizotti worked hard for Gavazzi and when the gap was small enough, Ulissi and Gavazzi bridged across to Uran. Colbrelli also made the junction and so a quartet had gathered.

Ulissi tried one final attack before around 10 riders caught the four leaders and it was all decided in a sprint. Ulissi launched from afar and it came down to a battle between the Lampre captain and Colbrelli. The latter was clearly the fastest and took a convincing win while Gavazzi narrowly held Slagter off in the battle for third.

With Tre Valli Varesine done and dusted, the attention turns to tomorrow’s Milan-Turin where the climbers will come to the fore. Colbrelli has one final race as a Bardiani rider, Thursday’s Gran Piemonte.