Irish U23s Rafferty, O'Brien make the cut on bruising day in Italy

Adam Rafferty, above, and compatriot Killian O'Brien made the cut on a very tough day out in Italy (Photo: Nassos Triantafyllou)

Killian O'Brien (Team Skyline) and Adam Rafferty (Hagens Berman Jayco) were among the survivors on a bruising day in Italy when fewer than 50 riders finished GP Palio del Recioto (1.2U), with over 3,000m of climbing and the two biggest climbs coming late in the day.

The reigning U23 world champion, Lorenzo Finn (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe Rookies), put on another Pogačar-like display, taking a dominant solo victory 24 hours after doing the same at Giro del Belvedere (1.2U).

After five laps of an opening circuit in the 152.4km - with two modest climbs each lap, one after the other - the riders moved onto the final 40km, tackling the four final climbs.

The first was the Mazzano (3km at 8.2 per cent), with a very short flat section before the Corrublo (5.1km at 6.1 per cent). They then descended before tackling the Santa Cristina (1km at 7.5 per cent) and them the top section of the Corrublo (2.9km at 7.3 per cent), with a near 15km descent to the finish.

Many of the riders were dropped either on the circuit or on the first passage of the Corrublo, meaning they were not permitted to continue onto the last sector of the race, featuring the final climb.

And that resulted in fewer than 50 riders finishing, though there were 165 starters, in a field that included many top level U23 development teams. Finn made his move on the final climb, with about 20km to go, as the remains of the peloton blew to pieces.

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He won by 56 seconds from Matteo Scalco (XDS Astana Development Team), who recently beat Rafferty for overall victory at Tour of Rhodes (UCI 2.2), where the Co Tyrone rider was 2nd overall.

Denmark's Kevin Biehl (General Store-Essegibi-F.Lli Curia) was 3rd today, on the same time as Scalo, after they had held onto Finn for the longest on the final climb.

The next riders to finish were almost three minutes back, with Rafferty taking a very solid 15th place - especially as he is not a pure climber. He finished at 5:14.

O'Brien, who is taking steps forward with every passing week, was 44th at 10:20. The fact he was a finisher today is confirmation he is continuing to progress.

David Gaffney (Hagens Berman Jayco) was among the 120 non-finishers today after his excellent 11th at Giro del Belvedere (1.2U) yesterday.