The Coppa Bernocchi was held as the second Italian autumn classic today and covered 192 kilometers. After starting in Legnano the first 45 kilometers were rather flat before a hilly lap of almost 17 kilometers had to be completed seven times and a flat final piece took the riders back to Legnano. Bora-Argon 18 rode aggressively right from the start.

Bartosz Huzarski made the first attack. A little later a large breakaway group with 24 riders, including Cesare Benedetti, went clear. It took nearly 30 kilometers for the field to catch this group before the laps started. After that, the race calmed down and a quartet was granted a lead of four minutes. During the last crossing of the highest climb of the day, 50 kilometers from the finish, Emanuel Buchmann attacked from the field and chased the lead group solo. This triggered a chain reaction and other riders followed him.

A new leading group was formed around Buchmann, but this wasn’t allowed. After further attacks, Jose Mendes and five other riders made a group that took a lead of 38 seconds into the last 10 kilometers. The sextet was able to maintain this gap and fight for the victory among them. Mendes was the first who attacked in the final kilometer, but he was caught by winner Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and finished in fifth place.

"That was an impressive performance today. We planned to ride actively from the start and to go aggressively in the groups. Bartosz tried it right after the start, then Cesare was in the large group. Emanuel attacked from the field on the last climb and was able to bridge to the lead group. When he was caught, he gave it another try before Jose went into the decisive group. The six men remained in front and Jose attacked again in the last 1.5 kilometers. He went away solo and was only caught shortly before the finish. That was a very strong performance by the entire team, because we tried everything to score a good result", said Enrico Poitschke, Sport Director of Bora-Argon 18.