The Italian tour of the Caja Rural-Seguros RGA club ended this Sunday in the best way, with a hard-worked victory of the Venezuelan Orluis Aular in the Matteotti Trophy after winning the sprint in a small group. The South American finished off the great work of his teammates to score his fifth win of the season.
“I’m very happy to get this win here in Italy, in the Matteotti Trophy. The team has been phenomenal, all the tactics that our director Rubén had proposed were fulfilled,” said Aular, in statements collected by his team.
The podium of the classic was completed by Italian Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) 2nd and Kazakh Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan Team) 3rd. The best Colombian was Esteban Chaves (EF Education – EasyPost) in 22nd place, 23 seconds behind the winner.
The twelve laps of the circuit in Pescara predicted a race with a lot of movement, with the climb to Scorrano as a transcendental point. From the start of the race there was a succession of breaks, with Julen Arriolabengoa involved in one of them before the strength of the peloton and the high pace aborted his attempt.
Already on the last lap the sprint seemed inevitable and, perfectly escorted by Uruguayan Thomas Silva, Orluis was able to get the best position to launch the sprint and reach the finish line raising his arms.
“I am very grateful to the Caja Rural-Seguros RGA team for the trust they have given me during these five years that I have been with them, very happy with everyone, both teammates and staff. I think we have done a great team race and that’s why we have managed to get the win, which is very nice in this final stretch of the season,” concluded the Venezuelan who sounds strongly to reinforce Movistar.
Trofeo Matteotti (1.1)
Pescara – Pescara (194 km)
| 1 | Orluis Aular | Caja Rural – Seguros RGA | 4:31:14 |
| 2 | Alessandro Covi | UAE Team Emirates | ,, |
| 3 | Alexey Lutsenko | Astana Qazaqstan Team | ,, |
| 4 | Davide De Pretto | Team Jayco AlUla | ,, |
| 5 | Marco Tizza | Bingoal WB | ,, |
| 6 | Giovanni Carboni | JCL Team UKYO | ,, |
| 7 | Marcel Camprubí | Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team | ,, |
| 8 | Kyrylo Tsarenko | Team Corratec – Vini Fantini | ,, |
| 9 | Georg Steinhauser | EF Education – EasyPost | ,, |
| 10 | Thomas Silva | Caja Rural – Seguros RGA | 0:02 |