Bouwman in Vingegaard’s footsteps with Coppi e Bartali final victory: ‘It was a while ago’

NOS Cycling•yesterday, 4:35 PM•Amended yesterday, 8:46 PM

Koen Bouwman has won the 39th Settimana Coppi e Bartali. The 30-year-old Achterhoeker from Visma-Lease A Bike started the difficult final stage around Forlì as the leader and saw the overall victory no longer in danger.

Bouwman is the first Dutchman to win the stage race named after the legendary racing duo of Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali.

“It has been a while, a year and a half, since I was able to put my hands in the air,” Bouwman said in conversation with Along the Line and Surrounding Areas. “I am really happy that I have now won the general classification.”

For Bouwman, this was his first victory since the 2022 Giro, in which he won two stages and the mountain jersey. Despite this success, the avid angling enthusiast has no ambition to be played as a leader.

“I am in one of the better teams in the world. There are so many strong guys in it that you cannot always go to a match as the leader. Now that was the case again and I grabbed that opportunity with both hands.”

In the past five days, that role has suited him just fine. “But on a day like today you want to reward all the staff who work super hard behind the scenes to help us here optimally,” says Bouwman. “I think that causes the most stress for me.”

Bouwman made his move in the third stage with start and finish in Riccione. He won the tough hill stage that partly ran through the dwarf state of San Marino. In the flat final phase, the Dutch rider jumped from a leading group to the wheel of the escaped Louka Matthys and beat the Belgian in the sprint.

Partly thanks to the bonuses, he also took over the leader’s jersey from another former winner, Diego Ulissi.

The other stages were won by Marco Brenner (Tudor), Ulissi (UAE) and Archie Ryan (EF). The latter, who was Bouwman’s teammate at Jumbo-Visma in the past, was also his main competitor for the overall victory, with a deficit of nine seconds.

In the final stage, in which the riders had to climb almost 3,000 meters of altitude on a local course around Forlì, Norwegian Carl Fredrik Hagen (Q36.5) rode alone in the lead for a long time. Sjoerd Bax was part of a group of pursuers, but literally fell away from it.

At 16 kilometers Hagen was again overtaken by a considerably thinned peloton with the most contenders in the rankings. Bouwman’s helpers then kept the pace high, preventing anyone from launching an attack.

The sprint on the old cycling track of Forlì was won by the Belgian Jenno Berckmoes (Lotto-Dstny), who was finally allowed to raise his hands after a second and two third places.

Although the modest Italian stage race in Emilia-Romagna has mainly been a competition in which young talents come to fruition in recent years, Bouwman joins a nice list.

Jonas Vingegaard, Cadel Evans, Michele Scarponi, Damiano Cunego, Paolo Bettini and Michele Bartoli, among others, have won the competition in the past. Last year, the Swiss Mauro Schmid was allowed to adorn himself with the flowers.