A twenty-year-old kid won the Tre Valli Varesine in Italy on Tuesday. Jarno Widar, Lotto-Intermarché, his first win as a pro, in his first season. He beat Tom Pidcock and Matteo Jorgenson in the sprint, after 196.1 kilometres between Busto Arsizio and Varese. I watched it in the evening, with a coffee at the kitchen table, looking for what I always look for.
What the television showed was the finale. Sixteen kilometres out, world champion Brandon McNulty attacks on the second-to-last climb, and seven riders are able to answer. Widar is among them. At twelve kilometres, Ramses Debruyne tries to catch everyone out on the last climb, and Pidcock, Jorgenson and Widar pull him back. After that, there are three.
What we watched less is the last kilometre. According to Velo 101, the three looked at each other. That moment, I know a little. Not at the front, you understand, I never got there. But a kilometre where three riders look at each other is a small office. Everyone is calculating. Who launches, who waits, how far back the chasers are. They call it the gruppetto, but it’s an office, and up there they had opened a branch for three. The trio held. And Widar launched from the back, according to Velo 101, and won by three lengths, according to HLN.
Jorgenson said afterwards, to HLN: “Proficiat aan Jarno, dat was a very nice sprint.” He said it half in Flemish. That’s kind of him. Someone who has just lost and congratulates in the other man’s language, they don’t show that thirty times either.
At the front, I couldn’t tell you. I only note that the roll of honour has Pogacar in 2025, and that now it has a twenty-year-old who finished 23rd in his first Vuelta this season.
Three riders in the sprint, three lengths at the line according to HLN, launched from the back. Compliant.
I finished the coffee. Somewhere, in the meantime, there was surely a guy heading back to the bus with empty bidons in his jersey. That, I did not see. De koers, the race, as they say in Flanders, is also what you don’t see.
It’s true, we checked: RTBF Sport.
