Known as a race for sprinters, Coppa Bernocchi was not the perfect race for Colombia. Due to a strong performance by Juan Pablo Valencia, however, the team played a key role.

Team Colombia’s Juan Pablo Valencia was definitely the most aggressive rider of the 96th Coppa Bernocchi, first race of the Trittico Lombardo, taking place on Tuesday September 16th on a 192 km route around Legnano, Italy. Valencia was the last rider to surrender to the chase of a 20-man group, edged in the final sprint by Elia Viviani (Cannondale) in front of Filippo Pozzato (Lampre) and Simone Ponzi (Neri Sottoli).

After 40 km of several attacks reeled in by the bunch – including those of Rodolfo Torres and Miguel Angel Rubiano – Valencia was among the starters of the day’s 4-man breakaway, that would eventually hold the lead until deep into the race: the 26-year-old from Medellin was joined by Caleb Ewan (Australia), Kenny De Ketele (Topsport) and Jaroslaw Marycz (CCC-Polsat), distancing the peloton by over 10 minutes. The quartet splintered several times on the uphill section of the 16-km circuit to be repeated seven times, with the Colombian and the Aussie constantly distancing their fellows.

Juan Pablo Valencia breakaway effort was rewarded with the day’s KOM classification: in fact, Valencia was first atop every categorized climb on the route.

The reaction from Cannondale led the bunch to get closer tp the breakaway in the second half of the race, catching the escapees in the final 20 km: Valencia was the last rider to give up, with less than 9 km to go, and placed 16th in the sprint to end his gutty performance.

“Coppa Bernocchi is usually a very controlled race, but the changed route could add some unpredictability and we wanted to give it a go with a long-distance breakaway," Sports DirectorValerio Tebaldi said. "Valencia did his part just great, racing hard until the end and winning the KOM classification. He has the right condition to show us something good in the next few days too.”

Tomorrow, Wednesday September 17th, Team Colombia will be at the start of the Trittico Lombardo’s second race, Coppa Agostoni.