Rome (AFP)

And four in a row!

The Italian champion Sonny Colbrelli extended Italian hegemony over the European Road Cycling Championship by sprinting the star-studded jersey to the great Belgian hope Remco Evenepoel, Sunday in Trento (Italy).

Colbrelli is the only one to have managed to stay in the wheel of the Belgian to dominate him in power in the final and offer Italy its fourth continental title, with four different riders, after the coronations of Matteo Trentin (2018), Elia Viviani (2019) and Giacomo Nizzolo (2020).

Frenchman Benoît Cosnefroy, who followed the first two for a long time, let go in the last of the eight climbs of the Povo coast (3.6 km at 4.7%), about ten kilometers from the finish.

He consoles himself with third place, at 1 min 30 sec.

"I did not leave with great feelings, I felt a little pressure to be at home, among the favorites. But I benefited from a great team, thanks in particular to Matteo Trentin. Winning this event is really an incredible thing ", savored the winner, who thus continues the Italian tradition, in the absence of the unsuccessful title holder Nizzolo.

However, it was necessary to be strong to resist Evenepoel, indeed returned to his best level a year after his serious fall during the Tour of Lombardy (pelvic fracture).

In Trento, he won his second podium at the European Championships, after third place in the time trial on Thursday.

In a fairly short race (179 km) but intense from the start, punctuated in particular by several French attempts, the young Belgian dynamited the leading group of ten riders 22 kilometers from the line, during the front -last ascent of the Povo, the only difficulty of the final 13 km circuit that the runners covered eight times.

Only Colbrelli and Cosnefroy then managed to follow Evenepoel, while other favorites of the day, such as the double winner of the Tour de France Tadej Pogacar (finally 5th at 1 min 43 sec), lowered the flag.

Italian rider Sonny Colbrelli crosses the finish line of the European Road Cycling Championship in Trento, September 12, 2021 Alberto PIZZOLI AFP

But Evenepoel never managed to get the Colbrelli "sticking plaster", which sometimes appeared at the limit in the final ascent but clearly more powerful in the two-man sprint in front of the famous Duomo which hosted the Council of Trent in the 16th century.

Colbrelli thus confirms his good season with, in addition to his title of Italian champion in June, his recent victory in the Tour of Benelux.

© 2021 AFP