The AI makes Napolitano, Venotoso and Cabrera the men to beat for this one day classic on narrow roads in Italy.
The road goes immediately upwards to start things off and there are attacks aplenty. Kupfernagel is first to go for IKEA. On his wheel are Euser, Appelby, Fitrianto, Belda. Further back Godfrey, Lay, Urtasun, and Diggle for Wiggle are trying to make moves.
As we get to the top of that first climb, only four are strong enough to get away. They are Appelby (100%), Belda (Benfica), Euser (Molteni), and Diggle. Once Diggle gets himself across the gap the break of the day has been formed.
IKEA, Vespa and Santander take to the front of the pack and make sure that the break is kept within reach.
155k to go, the lead is 2'45".
113k to go and they have 4'51".
100k the gap is still increasing and is now up to 5'40". IKEA and Vespa are still doing the bulk of the pacesetting.
90k and we are up to 6'04". 80k and it's now 6'23".
70k to go and Vespa and Sony collaborate to inject some pace into the chase. The gap is 5'48".
50k and it looks as if this is one break that is not going to make it. They have 3'22" on the chasers. With 40k they have lost a further minute and the gap is down to 2'33". Still Vespa doing most of the donkey work - if the pace goes out of the chase this group might still have an outside chance.
25k to go, a minute or so still up this group suddenly decide to attack each other. Who'll take the 'victory' of being first rider under the 20k to go banner?
In the event, it is Appelby, but more significantly, back in the pack there are attacks. First is Steurs for Nespresso and after him is Nocentini. Boucher (Molteni), Duran (Santander) and Costa (Benfica) try to follow.
IKEA have once more moved up to help Vespa and Sony in the chase, but Nocentini is easily the strongest of the attackers. He sweeps up the four who have been out in front all day and with 10k to go finds himself all alone up front.
He has 31 seconds back to a chasing group of 4 - Steurs, Boucher, Costa, and Duran - who themselves have 40 seconds back to the pack. The pack is moving quickly though - Sony, 100%ME, Santander, Vespa and IKEA all have riders up striving to pull back the five out in front.
5k to the line and Nocentini is riding his heart out. Alone against the pack now after the other group has been swept up.
3k now, and is he going to have the legs to hold off the sprinters when they come looking?
2.5k to go and it looks as if his goose is well and truly cooked, unless he has something in reserve for a sprint finish?
The bad news is that he doesn't and here come the sprinters with just 2k left. As Nocentini fades in the middle, on the left Cabrera and Napolitano are going toe to toe. On the right, Arrieta is leading out Ventoso.
500 meters later - 1.5k to go - Napolitano is taking on Cabrera. Ventoso waiting on the right.
Under the 1k to go banner and Napolitano is finishing faster than Cabrera. Ventoso has still not come around his lead out. The only other rider still in it looks to be Westling. Does he have the legs?
The answer is a resounding no. Ventoso can't get around Arrieta, and Napolitano is left to charge victorious to the line.
It's a close run thing with Cabrera breathing down his neck all the way, but Napolitano delivers a big win in Italy for Vespa here. Cabrera is second, Westling third and Ventoso amazingly doesn't manage to make it out from behind Arrieta.
