Lonardi 6th in the last sprint of Tirreno-Adriatico, Piganzoli 17th in the general classification

The sprint is a guarantee of a top-10 finish for Team Polti VisitMalta, which closes Tirreno-Adriatico with Giovanni Lonardi taking 6th place on the Riviera delle Palme. In the sprint won by Milan (Lidl-Trek) Mirco Maestri unfortunately crashed while acting as the lead-out man for the sprinter from Valpolicella, but thankfully without consequences.

As for the other Polti VisitMalta riders: Andrea Pietrobon, Alessandro Tonelli, Davide Bais and Fran Muñoz did not attempt the breakaway — which was caught after fifty kilometers on the only climb of the day — and instead focused on protecting both their sprinter and Davide Piganzoli. The latter, in fact, secured his 17th place in the GC, won by UAE’s Ayuso.

Lonardi: “We did a great job, managing to stay in the bunch and save energy for the tricky finale on the San Benedetto circuit. I was in a great position at 3 km to go, but then I got boxed in a bit. Still, I’m happy with my comeback on the finishing straight and with the performance we delivered as a team.”

Sports Director Stefano Zanatta: “The guys supported each other perfectly on a very fast course that could have been tricky. The overall balance of this Tirreno-Adriatico is quite positive because, even without an outstanding result, we were able to fight on all terrains.”