The final day of action at the Giro Valle d’Aosta saw the peloton head for the mountains once again, and a challenging 120 kilometre route from Valtournenche to Cervinia. A clichéd day of two halves, the opening portion of the stage took on a downhill section and more hilly terrain; while the final 60 kilometres contained three hard ascents, including the finish at almost 2000 metres altitude.

It was a fast start to the stage with lots of attacks with a five rider group going clear, before a counter attack flew from the bunch that included Oscar Onley. The two groups of five eventually joined up, forming a strong break of ten while behind the peloton set tempo. Working well together, the breakaway had increased their advantage to around five minutes and 30 seconds as the trio of climbs began in the latter half of the race. Holding their strong pace the group whittled down in size and heading onto the final long ascent with 20 kilometres to go Onley was out front alongside five others; while back in the peloton Lorenzo Milesi and Max Poole were riding well together.

The attacks started in the breakaway but Onley kept a cool head, riding at his own tempo before putting in his own attack to bridge to lone leader Calzoni. The duo continued to work well together but at four kilometres to go Onley sensed a lull in pace and put in a stinging attack; going solo. Meanwhile in the peloton which was four minutes behind, Milesi increased the tempo with Poole in his wheel; shredding riders from the back of the group before Poole himself put in a stinging attack which only Martinez, Thompson and Gloag could follow.

Out front Onley continued at his own tempo all the way to the line where he had enough time to sit up, raise his arms aloft and celebrate a wonderful win – his first in the U23 ranks and with the team. Behind, Poole kept the pace high in the group and ultimately came across the line in eighth place; a result which also sees him move up to sixth on the GC for the team too; rounding out a pure display of cycling from Team DSM’s Development program.

Speaking after the stage a jubilant Onley said: “We had two plans for today; protect Max for the GC and I was given a free role to go for the break. I rode within myself all day and managed to go alone with five kilometres to go. Behind Max and Lorenzo rode really strongly together and Max made a select GC group and moved up the GC too. It was a really good day for us to end the race and I want to say a big thanks to the staff for all their hard work this week, especially in this weather.”

Team DSM coach Boris Zimine added: “The plan was to try and get Oscar in the break and fight for the stage win, while on the other hand Lorenzo would protect and position Max; and then make a big pace on the last climb. Lorenzo did exactly that and when he finished Max made a big attack and only Martinez and Thompson could follow; and they caught some guys some guys from the break. Out front Oscar took a brilliant move and with this move Max moves up to sixth on GC, so we definitely achieved all of our goals today – the guys were super.”