A bad day in the office for the Irish at the Elite Euro Champs in Trento Italy, but it was also the case for most of the countries involved as 119 riders didn't finish!! Italian favourite Sonny Colbrelli beats Belgian hopeful Remco Evenpoel at the line after an immense battle!! (Sunday 12th September)

The final day of racing at the European Road got underway today with the Elite Men’s Road Race. A gruelling 179.2-kilometre race faced the riders which included a testing 73-kilometre loop in the Valle Dei Laghi which led the riders back to Piazza Duomo in Trento for a final 8 laps of the 13.2-kilometre circuit. Until the last lap, Remco Evenepoel and the remaining Belgians rode the perfect course. Evenepoel did not get rid of Colbrelli on the last climb of the day. The Italian did not give away the victory. Sonny Colbrelli has been in top form for several weeks. He won the Benelux Tour last week and started the European Championship as a top favourite. He finished it beautifully for his own people. For the Italians, it is the fourth European title in a row after Trentin in 2018, Viviani in 2019 and Nizzolo last year. Still: only 31 (!) riders made it to the finish of this very tough European Championship.

Sam Bennett, Ryan Mullen, Conn McDunphy (here above in the early stage of the race in the first attack of the day) and Matt Teggart were among a group of riders who were forced out of the race as they arrived back into Trento.

Elite Men Road Race (150 entries – Only 31 finished)
1 COLBRELLI Sonny (ITA) 179.2 Km in 04h19m45sec (Avg 41,393 Km/h)
2 EVENEPOEL Remco (BEL) @ s/t
3 COSNEFROY Benoit (FRA) @ 01:30
4 TRENTIN Matteo (ITA) @ 01:44
5 POGACAR Tadej (SLO) @ s/t
6 HIRSCHI Marc (SUI) @ s/t
7 HOELGAARD Markus (NOR) @ s/t
8 HERMANS Ben (BEL) @ 01:46
9 SIVAKOV Pavel (RUS) @ 01:49
10 CAMPENAERTS Victor (BEL) @ 05:41

Full results on https://www.trentino2021cycling.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Elite-Mer-Road-Race.pdf