A coming age performance from 22-year-old Rob Power in a wet and epic edition of Strade Bianche saw the Australian fight to make the right moves and finish in sixth place for Mitchelton-SCOTT.
Heavy rain made for a muddy and spectacular race that split in half early over the gravel sectors before reducing into small chasing groups behind a trio of leaders that led inot the closing kilometres.
Many riders were forced out due to the wet conditions and last year’s sixth place finisher Luke Durbridge was the victim of an early crash that left him ok, but unable to continue and as Mitchelton-SCOTT’s only rider in the front group it was left to Power to pull out a performance.
And what a performance it turned out to be. Up against the very best in the leading group Power stayed out of the mind games and drove forward to a top ten finish behind race winner Tiejs Benoot (Lotto-Soudal).
| Place | Rider/Team | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tiesj Benoot (BEL) - Lotto Soudal | 05:03:33 |
| 2 | Romain Bardet (FRA) - AG2R La Mondiale | 00:00:39 |
| 3 | Wout Van Aert (BEL) - Veranda's Willems Crelan | 00:00:58 |
| 4 | Alejandro Valverde (SPA) - Movistar Team | 00:01:25 |
| 5 | Giovanni Visconti (ITA) - Bahrain-Merida | 00:01:27 |
| 6 | Robert Power (AUS) - MITCHELTON-SCOTT | 00:01:29 |
| 7 | Zdenek Stybar (CZE) - Quick-Step Floors | 00:01:42 |
| 8 | Peter Sagan (SVK) - Bora-Hansgrohe | 00:02:08 |
| 9 | Pieter Serry (BEL) - Quick-Step Floors | 00:02:11 |
| 10 | Gregor Mühlberger (AUT) - Bora-Hansgrohe | 00:02:16 |
| Place | Mitchelton-SCOTT Riders | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Robert Power (AUS) - MITCHELTON-SCOTT | 00:01:29 |
