Green Edge's Simon Gerrans won the Milan-San Remo race today.
The race which is seen as the first major test of the cycling season, saw Cheng Ji (Project 1t4i), Juan Pablo Suarez (Colombia-Coldeportes), Dmitriy Gruzdev (Astana), Angelo Pagani (Colnago-CSF), Vergard Stake Laengen (Team Type 1), Juan Jose Oroz (Euskaltel), Pierpaolo De Negri (Farnese Vini), Michael Mørkøv (Saxo Bank) and Oleg Berdos (UtensilNord).after just 21kms of this 298km event.
They were able to take a lead of thirteen minutes before Mark Cavendish , a former race winner, who had been at the front with his Sky team-mates dropped off the back of the peloton.
Eventually, Cavendish and his team-mates realised it was not going to be their day and retired from the race, along with Berni Eisel, Matt Hatman, Jeremy Hunt, Salvatore Puccio and Ian Stannard.
The nine front men were caught with 60kms to go before the attacks and crashes started to happen on the Cipressa.
One crash brought down Phillipe Gilbert and as the race headed towards the Poggio, Jonny Hoogerland, Tom Boonen, Fabian Cancellara and Daniele Oss were at the front, trying to stop anyone else breaking away.
Cancellera (pictured below) lead out the sprint at the end but Simon Gerrans was quicker and able to be first over the line in a time of 6:59.24, ahead of Cancellera, Tirreno-Adriactico winner Vincenzo Nibali, Peter Sagan and John Dagenklob.
Picture copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM