Widar jumps Pidcock and Jorgenson for first pro victory at Tre Valli Varesine

20-year-old Jarno Widar (Lotto Intermarché) showed off his super talents and took the first professional victory of his career after a thrilling Tre Valli Varesine race in Italy.

Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) sparked the key attack, with Widar and Matteo Jorgenson (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) joining him. The trio started the final kilometre with a 30-second lead, as the chasers hesitated, and so the sprint became very tactical.

Widar came from behind, jumped past his rivals and held off Pidcock and Jorgenson. Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) won the sprint for fourth place just three seconds behind Widar.

"I decided to sprint from the back and come with speed. My 20-second effort is great, so I knew that I needed to go from far," Widar said.

The 196km hilly race was a fast affair and wide open in the absence of 2025 winner Tadej Pogačar.

Noah Ramsay (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Matteo Turconi (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber), Fabian Weiss (Tudor), Tommaso Nencini and Kyrylo Tsarenko (Solution Tech NIPPO Rali) formed the early break of the day after an aggressive opening 20km. They extended their lead to seven minutes but were slowly reeled in.

Mikkel Honoré (EF Education-EasyPost) jumped across to the remains of the break with 35km to go, but the peloton was close. Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and Davide Piganzoli (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) powered across to the Dane as the riders started the final 31km lap of the hilly Varese circuit.

UAE missed the attack and so forced the chase, with new world champion Brandon McNulty doing lots of work.

Pidcock sparked a new attack and was joined by Wider and Jorgenson with 15km to go. The American initially refused to work in the move, irritating Pidcock, but then hit the front to keep the gap at 20 seconds before the final climb up to the finish.

Movistar led the chase after UAE disappeared off the front and other riders sat on, ending the peloton's chances.

Widar, Pidcock and Jorgenson worked together on the final climb to central Varese, with Pidcock the natural favourite for the sprint. However, Widar used his huge burst of power to go past Pidcock and win Tre Valli Varesine.