UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Covi wins opening stage of Giro d’Abruzzo

UAE Team Emirates-XRG rode the opening stage of the Giro d’Abruzzo to perfection, seizing a vice-like grip of the day and teeing up Alessandro Covi to take the stage 1 victory. In doing so, the man known as Il Puma di Taino - the Puma of Taino - claimed his first victory in three years, marking a brilliant afternoon of racing for the Emirati squad in Italy.

Before the day’s finale, a breakaway went up the road and contested the day’s secondary prizes, but was not allowed of the leash by a peloton that was largely led by UAE Team Emirates-XRG. With a little over 30km to ride, the race was brought together as one under the impetus of Enea Sambinello and Ivo Oliveira, both of whom traded strong turns at the head of the peloton.

With the breakaway mopped up, there was a moment for opportunists to seek their fortune off the front. Among those who quickly went on the attack were Damien Howson, Harm Vanhoucke (both Q36.5 Pro Cycling) and Louis Meintjes (Intermarchè-Wanty), but it was the Emirati squad who remained in control by tracking the move through Oliveira.

The former Portuguese national champion handily embedded himself within an eight-man group that soon gained a 25-second advantage over the peloton, but did not take up the bait to contribute to the work out front. With Oliveira getting an armchair ride towards the last climb, owing to the presence of his teammates behind - who would be more suited to the uphill finish - UAE Team Emirates-XRG could take a moment to relax in the peloton and allow other teams to come to the fore.

With the likes of VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè and Israel Premier Tech Academy forced to commit their resources to bringing back the move, the gap to the breakaway naturally came down and with their advantage hovering at around 10 seconds, Oliveira sat up to wait for the peloton. Once the 28-year-old had taken his place in the wheels with 8km to go, his teammate Rune Herregodts came to the front and drilled the peloton with a lightning turn of pace.

Under his steam, the peloton swamped the remainder of the front group and began to dwindle in number, as the final 3km reared into view. Guiding his teammates Covi and Pablo Torres into the pointy end of proceedings, Herregodts was so strong that he briefly opened up a gap on the peloton with a smart spell of descending.

For a moment, it looked as though the Belgian might head into the 1.5km rise to the finish with a nifty advantage, but he quickly realised his strength and spent the rest of his bullets driving his teammates up the climb.

With 800m to ride, Oliveira took over from Herregodts and delivered a powerful pull for the next half a kilometre. Acting as a more than effective uphill lead-out man for Covi, the Portuguese brought the 26-year-old through to 300m from the line, at which point Covi decided it was time to take charge.

Rising out of his saddle, the Puma burst clear of his rivals and opened up his sprint for the line. With nobody able to come around the resurgent Italian, Covi was able to celebrate his first victory in almost three years - with his last stage success coming at the 2022 Giro d’Italia.

Given the team’s excellent performance, Covi was understandably delighted beyond the finish as he reflected on UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s 28th victory of the campaign.

Covi: “It is super nice, it is always nice to win. It is difficult because it has been three years, but we are professional, we work for this victory and we work every day of the week to arrive one time [with a win], maybe two or three - but it is difficult for most riders to win. Then I win again after three years.

“Obviously, when I had this race in my programme, I saw this finale and it was a good opportunity. With the team we tried to make the race [hard] to arrive with a small group to the finish, and we did it perfectly. In the last kilometre, I won the sprint. It was hard but every race is hard. It was not only the last effort.

“The final kilometre I could go full gas from the bottom to the finish.”