I LOVE THIS RACE.

Yes, I know I said I love the ending of Emilia more than life itself but for an entire one day race I just love the route of Tre Valli Varesine. Its selective but not overly so. Yes, sprinters need not apply and also if you are a rider or DS that is winding down from a long season you’re gonna get stomped here. Which I like very much. But if your skillset is anywhere from puncheur to climbing hellion and you are in form, you got a real chance here.

It's also not as crazy hard as Lombardy so the list of riders who have a real chance is longer than usual. Last year Ilan Van Wilder won (and he’s back to defend). In 2022 it was Pog. Going back several years we got

• 2021 Alessandro De Marchi
• 2020 (race cancelled for some reason)
• 2019 Primoz Roglic
• 2018 Toms Skuijns in a small bunch sprint with Pinot, Kennaugh, Woods, Frank, and Kelderman
• 2017 Alexandre Geniez, also in a small bunch spring with Pinot, Nibali, and Ulissi

See? Nice assortment of Grand Tour riders, “domestiques”, and hilly classic specialists. Pog can obviously win it but also Benoot.

What about the women you ask? Here’s the last two winners (the first women’s race was more of a local affair):

• 2023 Liane Lipert
• 2022 Eliza Longo Borghini

So, often like in Monument races, we see a solo winner/survivor but small bunch sprints are definitely on the table. The race is not overly long, 136.3km for the women, and 200.33km for the men which serves to make the race intense with the outcome not decided until the very end. (Disclaimer: unless you are Pog this year)

So who is riding this year?

Men: Pog, Remco, and Roglic, Gaudu, Vlasov, and Cattaneo. Benoot, Kelderman, and Mas. Ulissi, Ayuso, and Piganzoli. Arensman, Pidcock, and Right Yates. Poels, Buitrago, and Gregoire. Vine, Vermaerke, and Jorgenson. And Bardet, Majka, and Pozzovivo for us old people. One fun thing is Hirschi is NOT in this race. Crazy.

Women: this is a .Pro race and there’s a WWT stage race happening. Still: Brown, Muzic, Lippert, Kraak, Garcia, Labous, Gasparrini etc.

What about the course? This is yet another north of Milan race, basically a little to the west of yesterday’s Bernocchi course. It even starts in the town just to the northwest of where bernocchi started and like Bernocchi travels north. Unlike Bernocchi however it goes a bit further north to Varese and stays there for a bunch of loops around and outside of town. It's a prettier race all around with the lovely hills and Lake Varese. And those lovely hills make all the difference:

That’s ten times the races passes the finish line and otherwise is constantly going up and down. Most of the race follows a tight 15k m circuit-until after the eighth time around the race veers off to twice going on a longer 30km circuit, which features two very short walls, before finishing.

The women’s course is the same except it doesn’t have the two finishing longer circuits:

So who’s gonna win?

For the women, Jens likes (which as we all know means curses) Grace Brown

For the men, do you really want me to pick someone other than Pog? Okay Pogacar. Hmm. My keyboard keeps writing Pogacar. Must be broken. Let me try writing an Ineos name...P O G A C A R. Sorry can’t help you out here.

One thing from Bernocchi that was interesting was Remco attacking from 80km out. Didn’t work of course as he wanted to do a Pog and go solo and other riders could keep up with him on that gentle course but at least he’s aware that Pog will go from a long ways out. Hey! I’m looking for something, anything here. How about Roger Adria? Guy’s in good form.