Welcome to Milan for the oldest Italian classic in cycling. Today we'll be riding to Turin, with only one major difficulty in the course and that is the Colle di Superga, only 16 km away from the end.
The favorites for the race are Ricco, Ginanni and Gilbert. Can the Belgian champion stop the Italians in their home country?
It's autumn and it's raining. Only three riders feel like attacking today; Sobal, Belda and Devenyns. With 100km to go, they have a nice lead of 10 min.
But Bacardi and Cilit Bang have everything under control.
When we come close to the main climb of the day, Devenyns and Sobal attack away from Belda. They only have a 1 minute gap left.
On the first parts of the Colle di Superga, Belda gets caught by the peleton.
And when Devenyns and Sobal get caught, Ben Nasser launches an attack. He gets countered by Efimkin, Kolobnev and Monfort.
Wiggle also send someone to the front and it's Caruso. He gets countered by Claeys, Ginanni and Ricco! Gilbert, Pozzato and Ponzi shouldn't wait to long anymore!
When the others sit down, Ricco accelerates some more, blasting past everyone in to the lead.
At that moment, Gilbert and Pozzato attack from the peleton to the front group.
A little later Ponzi also attacks, using the slipstream of the motor.
At the top of the climb, Ricco has a gap of 40" on the chasing group. Efimkin and Ponzi are still behind the second group, although only 30".
Nobody is really chasing Ricco and behind him the 2 groups come together. Although, not for long. As a few riders try to chase Ricco on their own; Gilbert, Caruso, Kolobnev, Ben Nasser and Monfort.
The second group consists of Proni, Ginanni, Pozzato, Ponzi, Nocentini, Claeys and Efimkin.
The situation with 5 km to go:
E1:
Ricco
E2 - 1':
Gilbert, Caruso, Kolobnev, Ben Nasser and Monfort
E3 - 40":
Proni, Ponzi, Nocentini, Claeys, Efimkin, Pozzato and Ginanni
But the riders are closing the gap to Ricco though. The Italian has been solo for 15km and behind him attacks are coming.
The 2 groups behind Ricco merge as Pozzato and Ponzi bring it back together. Ponzi, Pozzato, Claeys and Ginanni even press on. Kolobnev tries to follow. Ricco still has a 30" gap with 2 km.
1 km to go and it Ricco is sprinting for everything he's worth, but Ponzi & co are coming up fast.
Ricco's still not there, as Kolobnev has now launched his sprint and is coming up fast. Ponzi and Claeys are battling it out for 3th.
Kolobnev is coming closer and closer.
But Ricco just hangs on, a deserved victory.
Kolobnev finishes second, while Claeys stopped sprinting, which gave Ponzi an easy 3th place. Pozzato and Ginanni, the two best riders finishes as the last 2 of this group.
40" later Monfort comes in solo. A minute behind Ricco, Efimkin and Gilbert lead in another group. Disappointing race by the Belgian.
And you might wonder, where was Ignatiev in all of this? Well, he didn't even attack and leads in the peleton to a 17th place. Although, Wiggle was the strongest team with 6 riders finishing in the top 20, it probably didn't turn out like they would have planned.
