2015 Gran Premio di Lugano


The 2015 Gran Premio di Lugano was the 69th edition of the Gran Premio di Lugano road cycling race. The race took place on 1 March 2015 on a loop around the city of Lugano, Switzerland, starting and finishing on the shore of Lake Lugano.
The defending champion from the 2014 Gran Premio di Lugano was Mauro Finetto.
While the terrain of the race is not particularly difficult, it was considered likely that the race would be fairly selective because the race comes so early in the season, when riders are not in their best form. The most challenging climb was expected to be that of Collina d'Oro.
The race was won by Niccolò Bonifazio in a sprint.

Teams

14 teams were selected to take part; four were UCI ProTeams, nine were Professional Continental teams and one was a Continental team. With eight riders per team allowed to enter the race, the maximum number of riders was 112.

ProTeams

The early part of the race saw a 17-man breakaway form. They built up a maximum lead of just over four minutes, before the breakaway split up after approximately. Jérôme Coppel and Nico Brüngger escaped from the rest of the group and built a small lead; a seven-man group formed behind them with the remainder of the breakaway swallowed up by the peloton, now led by. The chase group caught Coppel and Brüngger, and Daniel Teklehaymanot made a solo attack, but after the race was brought back together. led the pace through the final lap of the race, with Ivan Basso attacking on the climb. The climb, however, was shortened by roadworks and Basso was not able to build a sufficient lead. The race therefore came down to a sprint, and Niccolò Bonifazio took his first win of the year. Francesco Gavazzi was second with Matteo Montaguti the third Italian rider on the podium.

Race result