Movistar Team kept until the very end their ambitious chances to contest the victory in the prestigious Milano-Sanremo, the Classicissima holding today its 102nd edition over the traditional 298km route from the inland to the coast.

Fran Ventoso and José Joaquín Rojas, the two main cards played by the telephone squad, made part from the leading group since, with 80 kilometers from the finish, the main bunch got split into two echelons, with fourty riders ahead including also Pablo Lastras, who worked his heart out to help the squad’s two leaders. The main field got selected into the definitive ascent to the Poggio di Sanremo, where the impressive attack by Vincenzo Nibali (LIQ) left the group into only eight units, the riders from Movistar Team not able to make it despite coming through the climb with a dozen seconds lost -despite Rojas made that first selection in the beginning, letting them go after he suffered from cramps in the closing meters of the climb-.

At the end, Ventoso came in first place into the second group, 27 seconds behind winner Matthew Goss (HTC) and over Petacchi, Bennati and Rojas, leaving this way two Movistar Team riders into the Classicissima‘s top-15. Madrazo, Bruseghin and Konovalovas also made the first big group after the day’s leaders. The squad directed by José Luis Jaimerena, with the only exception of the two crashes -with no physical consequences- by Belarusian Vasil Kiryienka, went away from numerous incidents seen across the course and will be returning to Spain on Sunday after a 10-day stint on Italian turf.