Greig Leach

Milano-Sanremo is the longest of all of the Spring Classics, in fact of all of the one day races on the pro calender. This group of eight had gotten away at the very start of the race. As they made this turn, Samuele Rivi (EOLO-Kometa), Filippo Tagliani (Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli), Artyom Zakharov (Astana Qazaqstan), and Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF-Faizane) had been off the front of the peloton for 189 kilometers. With another 104 to go they had a sizeable gap of seven minutes on those behind. With so much yet to go it did seem unlikely that they would be able to stay away, but it was well worth the effort to give it a try.