Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) has been unstoppable in the late-season races in Italy and today he continued his domination when he won Giro dell'Emilia, one of the most prestigious Italian classics. On the feared San Luca climb, he launched a strong attack 600m from the top and held off Chris Anker Sørensen (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Davide Villella (Cannondale) to take his third win in less than two weeks.

Diego Ulissi never got the chance to show his form in the world championships as he was held up by two crashes but since then, the Italian has been virtually unbeatable. Having already won last Wednesday's Milan-Turin and Thursday's Coppa Sabatini, he added the prestigious Giro dell'Emilia to his palmares by taking a solo win today.

The Italian hid in the peloton while the repeated passages of the feared and brutally steep San Luca climb gradually whittled down the peloton until only 13 riders remained when they hit the 2km climb for the final time. While several riders were put into difficulty from the bottom, Ulissi always appeared to have everything under control and easily returned to Davide Villella when the young stagiaire attacked.

In the end, only Ulissi, Francesco Bongiorno (Bardiani), Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani) and Villella were left in contention while Chris Anker Sørensen and Franco Pellizotti (Androni) fought hard a little further behind. With 600m to go, Ulissi made his decisive acceleration and no one could keep up with the strong Italian. Ulissi crossed the line in solo fashion while Sørensen made a good comeback to take 2nd ahead of an impressive Villella.

Pre-race favourites Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r) and Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida) both had disappointing performances and finished outside the top 5.

With Giro dell'Emilia now done and dusted, only one race remains on the Italian calendar for the 2013 season. Many of today's riders will be back in action in tomorrow's GP Beghelli which brings the curtain down on the Italian season.

A dreaded climb

The 96th Giro dell'Emilia was the final big Italian classic and was held on a 200km course with start in Modena and finish in Bologna. After an opening stretch with several longer climbs, the race finished with its traditional 4 laps on a 9,3km circuit and 5 passages on the brutally steep San Luca climb. As usual, the finish line was located on the top of the dreaded ascent.

It may be late in the season but the peloton had no intentions of taking it easy today. On the contrary, the riders raced the first part of the race at a fierce pace as several unsuccessful attacks were launched. For a long time, no group was able to separate itself from the peloton and the riders covered 50,2km during the first hour due to the many attacks.

A big group goes clear

After 50km, a big 14-rider group finally escaped as Nicki Sørensen, Sergio Paulinho, Pawel Poljanski (all Saxo-Tinkoff), Nicolo Martinello (Cannondale), Manuele Mori (Lampre), Hubert Dupont (Ag2r), Adrian Honkisz (CCC), Antonio Parrinello, Miguel Angel Rubiano, Patrick Facchini (all Androni), Angelo Pagani (Bardiani), Fabio Taborre (Vini Fantini), Alexander Rybakov (Rusvelo) and Tsgabu Grmay (MTN-Qhubeka) built up a gap of 1.35. However, Colombia had missed the move and so the South American team rode hard up the day's first climb and managed to reduce the advantage to just 30 seconds.

Martinello and Grmay fell off the pace on the climb while the front group managed to rebuild their advantage to 1.20. Meanwhile, Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani) attacked from the peloton and joined Grmay and Martinello who were still in pursuit of the leaders.

The peloton loses ground

That trio was caught when the peloton accelerated and reduced the gap to just 50 seconds. However, the front group was once again able to up their pace and managed to extend the gap to a maximum of 2 minutes.

With Martinello no longer in the group, Cannondale had no rider in the escape and so the Italian team started to chase. For some time, the green-clad riders kept the gap stable between the 1.30 and 2.00 mark.

The break splits up

As the approached San Luca for the first time, Sørensen tried an attack but he was quickly reeled in by his chasers. Meanwhile, the peloton had significantly upped the pace and was now only 1.28 behind the front group.

Paulinho was the first to get dropped when the escapees hit the main climb for the first time, and a little later his teammate Sørensen also fell off the pace. Rybakov, Parrinello and Pagani were the next to lose contact but the latter managed to rejoin his companions before the top. For a short while, Rubiano was the lone leader of the race but the Colombian was caught before he crossed the finish line for the first time.

Parrinello sets off on his own

At the top, the peloton was just 55 seconds behind but the breakaway was able to reopen their gap to 1.30 on the descent. Parrinello got back on and the young Italian immediately left the others behind.

The Italian did a good job to open up a big gap on his chasers who split up on the second passage of the climb. At the top, Dupont and Mori were the nearest pursuers of Parrinello at 48 seconds while the peloton was 19 seconds further adrift.

Lampre-Merida show their intentions

The peloton kept the pace high on the descent and as they hit the climb for the third time, they had swallowed up the chase group. Parrinello was now the only remaining escapee but he quickly got a new chaser when Donato De Ieso (Bardiani) set off in pursuit.

The Bardiani rider didn't keep his advantage for long as Lampre-Merida showed their intentions. They rode a hard tempo up the climb and by the time they reached the top, all escapees were back in the fold. At the same time, the main group had split up with the first peloton consisting of 18 riders and a second peloton being 12 seconds behind.

Durasek and Sella attack

Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida) and Emanuele Sella (Androni) attacked on the descent while Matteo Rabottini (Vini Fantini) set off in pursuit. The 2012 Giro king of the mountains did well to bridge across to the leaders after a long pursuit while Oliver Zaugg (Saxo--Tinkoff) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Merida) escaped from the peloton.

On the penultimate passage of San Luca, Rabottini paid the price for his hard work and fell off the pace. Zaugg dropped Cunego who was caught by the peloton but moments later, the Swiss was also back in the fold. Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani) attacked and he quickly overtook Rabottini who fell back to the main group.

The break is caught

At the top, Zardini was only a few seconds behind the front duo but the peloton was not far behind. The main group kept the pace high on the descent and with 7km to go, all escapees had been caught.

At this point, the peloton only consisted of Chris Anker Sørensen (Team Saxo-Tinkoff), Davide Villella (Cannondale), Durasek, Michele Scarponi (Lampre Merida), Diego Ulissi (Lampre Merida), Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r La Mondiale), Davide Rebellin (CCCPolsat), Franco Pellizotti (Androni Giocattoli Venezuela), Emanuele Sella (Androni Giocattoli Venezuela), Gianfranco Zilioli (Androni Giocattoli Venezuela), Francesco Manuel Bongiorno (Bardiani Valvole Csf Inox), Edoardo Zardini (Bardiano Csf Inox) and Mauro Finetto (Vini Fantini Selle Italia) and those 13 riders hit the bottom of San Luca for the final time as one group.

Villella launches strong attack

Sørensen, Rebellin, Durasek, Sella, Finetto, Zilioli and Pellizotti all fell off the pace and so only 6 riders now remained together. Villella launched a strong attack and his fierce acceleration put Scarponi in difficulty.

Zardini set off in pursuit and he was joined by Ulissi and Bongiorno who got across to Villella. Pellizotti and Sørensen managed to fight their way back to that group, just as Zardini launched an attack.

The Italian had no success and instead Ulissi decided that it was time to show his hand. The in-form Italian accelerated furiously with 600m to go and never looked back. He took a convincing win and added to his late-season string of successes that already included Milan-Turin and Coppa Sabatini.

Result:

1. Diego Ulissi
2. Chris Anker Sørensen
3. Davide Villella
4. Franco Pellizotti
5. Francesco Manuel Bongiorno

6. Edoardo Zardini

7. Mauro Finetto

8. Michele Scarponi

9. Domenico Pozzovivo

10. Emanuele Sella