Jared Graves and Tracy Moseley Lead EWS Finale After Day 1

Tracy Moseley on her way to the win last week in Ainsa. She's on track for more of the same here in Italy this week - photo Duncan Philpott

With the series titles on the line the first day of racing got underway today in Finale Ligure, and although flooding from the previous day's heavy rain caused the organizers to cancel one stage, the racing itself took place with the weather cooperating. In the men's, we saw Jerome Clementz and Jared Graves swap the overall lead during the day, with Fabien Barel reminding us that although he is set to retire at the end of this race, he is still very much a force to be reckoned with on the bike, signing a stage win and holding down 5th place overall despite having some issues on stage 1. Series leader Richie Rude was consistent over the 3 stages, and sits in 8th - a comfortable spot with regards to the fight for the overall title (he only needs to finish 24th or better to take home the overall series win by our calculations. He sits 38 seconds ahead of 24th place after day 1).

In the women's, Cecile Ravanel is determined to go out with a bang, and she's been taking the fight to Tracy Moseley all day. Only a few seconds separate the 2 women with Tracy leading, but they are already almost 1 minute ahead of third placed Ines Thoma at this point. Tracy basically just needs to finish the race to secure the overall title, so chances are she won't take all the risks tomorrow. Stay tuned to see how it will all unravel!