Our young Dane delivers a breakout performance against the WorldTour’s best at Tre Valli Varesine!
At just 19 years old, Albert Withen Philipsen’s second-place finish at today’s Tre Valli Varesine was nothing short of spectacular. Fresh off a top 10 result at Giro dell’Emila, it’s clear he’s not just a future contender, he’s making his mark now. The day saw a fast pace from the start, with several attacks going early and the peloton stretched thin on the punchy climbs around Varese.
Quinn Simmons was first to try his hand when it got to the pointy end of racing, going clear from the peloton and forcing the other teams to chase – hard! Quinn picked up the KOM prize for his efforts and was only reeled back inside 20km to go. Albert stayed calm and with the help of his teammates, positioned himself well throughout. As the race entered its finale, the attacks ramped up and the current World champion, Tadej Pogacar, got a gap and wouldn’t be seen again.
In the final kilometers, the pace was brutal but both Albert and Toms (Skujins) marked the key moves and got ready for a reduced bunch sprint. Toms delivered a textbook lead-out for Albert who opened early and hung on for a fantastic second place while Toms crossed the line in sixth.
From Albert..
It was a really hard day. I didn’t feel too good in the early part of the race with some fatigue from yesterday’s Coppa Bernocchi but after a couple of hours, the legs started to feel better and I could slowly get into the race. The team did really good today at keeping us well positioned in front and we rode great together so it was a super nice experience. We wanted to race aggressively when we got closer to the end and Quinn was really strong today and unfortunately his move didn’t get to the finish line but myself and Toms tried to keep the pace going when we caught up to his group. I didn’t expect this result so I’m super happy with the performance.
