Canadian Jesse Melamend and Frenchwoman Morgane Charre each took two stage wins and were simply too fast for their rivals on the six fast, rough and technical routes over the azure waters of the Ligurian Sea in Italy.

After a 56-kilometer day, Frenchwoman Charre had a comfortable lead of almost 14 seconds over second-placed local hero Gloria Scarsi (Canyon CLLCTV Dainese). Last year's winner Isabeau Courdurier (Lapierre Zipp Collective) came third.

Charre got off to a good start and won the first two stages of the day, which were by far the longest of the race at around 10 minutes each. This put her in the lead all day, although Scarsi, who won a later stage, was propelled to her best result on the world stage by a vociferous and partisan local crowd.

In the men's race, the third round of the 2023 season, it took Canadian Melamed a stage to get going, but he then found his pace, took the stage win and kept the lead for the rest of the day, which was a massive day in the saddle with more than 2,000 meters of climbing and 3100 meters of descending.

The biggest threat to Melamed came from his compatriot Rhys Verner (Forbidden Synthesis Team), who won the first and fifth stages of the day. This meant that he was only five seconds behind at the end of the race after almost 30 minutes against the clock. Frenchman Alex Rudeau (Commencal Enduro Project) won a stage and finished third less than a second behind Verner with two second places.

The fastest German is Christian Textor in 40th place, Raphaela Richter missed the podium by just ten seconds. The two Swiss athletes Tim Bratschi and Gusti Wildhaber finished 46th and 47th respectively.

Results