Veneto Classic

The Veneto Classic is a men's one-day bike race in the Veneto region of northeastern Italy, held in October at the end of the Ride the Dreamland week. Filippo Pozzato's company PP Sport Events first ran it in 2021. It finishes in Bassano del Grappa after laps over La Tisa, a cobbled wall of 330 meters at 15.2 percent, and in the editions from 2022 to 2025 it also crossed the gravel climb of Diesel Farm.

The Veneto Classic is a men’s one-day race through the hills around Bassano del Grappa in northeastern Italy. Filippo Pozzato launched it in 2021 as the last race of his Ride the Dreamland week, and it finishes over cobbles, gravel and a run of steep ramps.

Why did Filippo Pozzato create the Veneto Classic?

Pozzato, a former professional from the Veneto, wanted a classic that would show off his home region. Before the first edition Cyclingnews reported that he hoped it would become his region’s answer to Strade Bianche. He had organized the Italian championships in the region in August 2020, and his team had put the cobbled wall of La Tisa into that course. The plan for a single race then grew into a week that also holds the revived Giro del Veneto.

The first Veneto Classic was held on October 17, 2021, over 207 kilometers. Pozzato said he wanted it to start one day from Piazza San Marco in Venice, and the first edition set out from the Parco San Giuliano on the shore of the lagoon, at the edge of Mestre. He also designed the finale as laps, so that spectators see the riders several times, as they do at the Tour of Flanders. He said from the start that he wanted the race in the WorldTour, and in 2023 it moved up from the 1.1 class to the UCI ProSeries.

Samuele Battistella’s solo win in the first edition

Samuele Battistella, a former under-23 world champion from nearby Rossano Veneto, went clear with Matteo Trentin just under 40 kilometers from the finish. They had more than half a minute when Trentin touched Battistella’s back wheel on La Rosina and crashed, a little over 20 kilometers out. Battistella rode on alone. He still had 20 seconds at the top of the last climb of La Rosina, seven kilometers from the line, and only about six after a short steep rise 3.5 kilometers from the finish. He held off Marc Hirschi and Jhonatan Restrepo for his first professional victory.

La Tisa: the cobbled wall with a party on it

La Tisa is a narrow stone-paved ramp in Colceresa, 330 meters at 15.2 percent. The race climbed it twice in 2021, three times in 2022, four in 2023, five in 2024 and six in 2025. The organizer sets aside an area on the wall, the Tisa Party, with a big screen, a DJ, hamburgers and beer.

In 2024 Magnus Cort joined the early break because of this climb. “I knew if we could come in on the laps with the cobblestone climb and have a gap in there, we could go a really long way because it is a very difficult climb,” he said, as quoted by Cyclingnews. Three of the six in the break were still ahead on the Tisa laps, with 1 minute 20 seconds in hand 23 kilometers from the finish.

Diesel Farm, the gravel climb 10 kilometers from Bassano

After the last ascent of La Tisa the editions from 2022 to 2025 went up through Diesel Farm, a wine estate, on 1.3 kilometers of gravel at 10.9 percent. It comes about 10 kilometers from the finish. Cort attacked his last companions there in 2024 and won alone, ahead of Romain Grégoire, after more than 170 kilometers in front.

In 2022 Hirschi went clear on the climb with Nicola Conci, was dropped by him and was then passed by his own teammate Davide Formolo. He kept to the band of concrete beside the gravel, got back to them at the top and attacked on the descent, nine kilometers from the finish. Formolo finished second, 10 seconds behind, and Trentin lost fourth place in the group behind when he raised an arm to celebrate. That race was also the last of Davide Rebellin’s career, at the age of 51.

Contrà Soarda, where Davide Formolo attacked in 2023

One ramp is left after the gravel: Contrà Soarda, 400 meters at 13 percent. In 2023 Formolo, Hirschi and Filippo Zana reached it together, and Formolo accelerated on it and rode alone to Bassano while Hirschi sat on Zana’s wheel. Hirschi took second, his third podium in three editions. From there the route runs into the town, crosses the Ponte Nuovo and climbs Via Portici Lunghi to the line in Piazza Libertà.

Sakarias Koller Løland’s first victory, from a break of 19

In 2025 Sakarias Koller Løland got into a group of 19 that went away after 30 kilometers and supplied the whole podium. He was dropped on the last climbs and came back six kilometers from the finish, after the gravel. In Piazza Libertà he outsprinted Florian Vermeersch and Diego Ulissi for the first victory of his career. It was the second win in a row for his team, Uno-X Mobility, after UAE Team Emirates had taken first and second in both 2022 and 2023. No rider has won twice in the five editions from 2021 to 2025.

In 2022 Marc Hirschi was dropped on the gravel of Diesel Farm, came back along the concrete strip at the side of the road and attacked on the descent to win alone. In 2023 Davide Formolo rode away on the ramp of Contrà Soarda. In 2024 Magnus Cort spent more than 170 kilometers in the break and went solo on Diesel Farm with 10 kilometers left.