Power First Aussie to Win Valle d’Aosta

Robert Power has become the first Australian to the win the Giro Ciclistico della Valle d’Aosta Mont Blanc.

The Western Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder took the lead on the opening day after a dominant performance in the prologue before losing the jersey on day three, only to fight back and reclaim the lead and the tour win over the closing two days.

The opening day prologue, pitted competitors against a 5.4 kilometre uphill time trial to Morillon (Les Esserts). Power produced a time of 13 minutes and 26 seconds to finish 18 seconds faster than the nearest rider in second.

Power nearly made it two wins in two days when he narrowly missed out on stage one’s victory, recovering from a late mechanical at the start of the final climb to finish second.

The Jayco-AIS World Tour Academy squad worked hard on the front of the bunch to protect Power’s lead on the second stage where teammate Jack Haig finished third on the uphill finish.

Another mechanical on the final climb on the stage three saw Power lose the yellow jersey by just 11 seconds. However, perfect teamwork on the penultimate stage that included no less than eight climbs, allowed Power to assert his dominance and reclaim yellow by 42 seconds over Laurens De Plus (Lotto Soudal U23) and 47 seconds over Simone Petilli (Unieuro Wilier Trevigiani), with all other riders over a minute behind.

At 86.6 kilometres, the final stage was the shortest of the race but was by no means an easy day. Over half the stage was uphill, including the final 35 kilometre stretch. As the peloton dwindled towards the start of the final climb to the finish Colle del Gran San Bernardo, Rob Power and Jack Haig were well positioned.

An initial break of nine riders who were not a threat to the general classification was allowed plenty of room with three going on to contest the stage victory. Haig and Power led the chase home in a group of two to seal Power’s victory, with Haig moving up to ninth overall.

-CyclingAus