Kwiatkowski (SKY) wins in Via Roma
Italian from Movistar Team focused on finale, finishes behind top sprinters in tight finish after Sagan's (BOH) huge attack is taken advantage from by Michal Kwiatkowski (SKY) for the win
Daniele Bennati (Movistar Team) completed a fine performance at the 108th Milano-Sanremo (photo gallery) on Saturday. The Italian got 14th at the first Monument of the classics season, 5” behind a lead trio -Kwiatkowski (SKY, winner), Sagan (BOH, 2nd) and Alaphilippe (QST, 3rd)- at the famous Via Roma.
Much conditiones by headwinds into the first part of the race (the average just over 40kph, the slowest race in more than a decade) and sustained pace from FDJ, Bora, QuickStep and Sky at the front of the bunch -as well as Tom Dumoulin (SUN), who avoided any accelerations into the closing climbs-, the ‘Clasicissima’ held no attacks other than Sagan’s fucilata over the final kilometer of the Poggio. The Slovak sensation prevented a group sprint from prevailing this season, ‘Benna’ fighting behind to stay into the group and contest it.
Helped out until the closing climb by Dowsett and Sütterlin, the man from Arezzo -who even featured into the brief splits provoked by the twisty Cipressa descent- claimed his fifth top-15 finish in a race that has already seen him finishing both 5th (2010) and 6th (2009).