Pieter Weening made this week’s pair of Italian one-day races an Orica-GreenEDGE show by winning the Giro della Toscana one-day after his teammate Adam Yates won the GP Industria. The pair were part of a 6-rider group that escaped in the finale and it was Weening who made the decisive solo attack to take the win ahead of Jerome Baugnies (Wanty) and Roman Maikin (Rusvelo).

Yesterday Adam Yates won the GP Industria to kick off this weekend’s pair of Italian one-day races off in the best possible way for Orica-GreenEDGE. Today the team made it two from two when Pieter Weening emerged as the strongest in the Giro della Toscana.

Yates again played a key role in the race as the young Brit helped blow the race to pieces on the late climbs until a 6-rider grouped emerged in the front. Yates and Weening kept attacking their rivals and it was the Dutchman who escaped to take the win while Jerome Baugnies beat Roman Maikin in the sprint for secon, with Yates rolling across the line in 5th place.

The race took place on a 195.6km from Empoli to Arezzo. The first part was flat but then the riders went up two big climbs before arriving at the finish for the first time. In the end, the riders did 6 laps of a finishing circuit that included a pretty hard climb.

As it is usual for Italian one-day races, it was off to a really fast start and it took some time for the early break to be established. At first, 7 riders got clear and later 10 riders bridged that gap to make it a 17-rider group that included Orica-GreenEDGE riders Cameron Meyer and Sam Bewley.

The Italian national team was the major squad to have missed the move and they took responsibility for the chase. With 3 laps to go, the group was caught and from here the attacking started again.

Orica-GreenEDGE helped blow the race to pieces. During the next passage of the climb, the group was whittled down to just 12 riders and Weening and Yates had both made the selection.

The next time up the climb, Yates dropped the hammer and only Baugnies, Weening, Maikin, Sergey Firsanov (Rusvelo) and Marco Canola (Bardiani) were able to keep up with them. From there, the Orica pair took turns attacking their rivals.

Yates launched an attack just before the final climb and it took the toll on their break companions to chase down the young Brit. Just Yates was caught, Weening launched the predicted counterattack and he got an immediate gap.

From there, Weening time trialled his way to the victory while Baugnies won the sprint from the 4-rider chase group – Firsanov had been left behind – to take second and make it two podiums in a row.

The Italian racing scene now takes a lengthy break before it continues with the Settimana Lombarda in early September that is loaded with the classic late-season one-day races.