Vincenzo Nibali of Astana has won the Tour De Lombardy.
This annual 256km race from Bergamo to Como attracted a strong field and had eleven riders in Stefan Schumacher (CCC Sprandi), Enrico Barbin (Badiani CSF), Jan Polanc (Lampre-Merida), Matteo Busato (Southeast), Dennis Van Winden (LottoNL-Jumbo), Simon Geschke (Giant-Alpecin), Pier Paolo de Negri (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Marco Canola (UnitedHealthcare), Cesare Benedetti (Bora-Argon 18) and Oscar Gatto (Androni Giocattoli).
Over the Colle Gallo, a 7.4km climb and the gap back to the peloton was over eight minutes and it was still eight minutes as they went over the Colle Brianza.
With a hundred kilometres left, the gap was down by a minute but on the Madonna del Ghisallo climb, the gap stood at only 2.30 thanks to some good work from Etixx Quick Step.
Benedetti and Canola launched an attack which split the break and they were out front and clear of a second group on the road which was 24 seconds ahead of the peloton.
They extended that lead to 2.30 over a chasing group which contained Michal Kwiatkowski, Tom Jelte Slagter, Jan Polanc, Simon Geschke, Lukasz Wisniowski,Tim Wellens, Robert Gesink and Jon Izagirre.
This group grew to about twenty riders and with less than twenty kilometres to go, Vincenzo Nibali put in a dig which many of those in the group of favourites were not able to respond to after the two leaders had been brought back.
Nibali was 41 seconds ahead with seven kilometres left so Dani Moreno went after him.
The gap came down to fourteen seconds but Nibali had too much about him and the former Tour De France winner cruised to victory in a time of 6.16.28 finishing 21 seconds ahead of Daniel Moreno of Katusha, 32 seconds ahead of Thibaut Pinot of FDJ, 46 seconds ahead of Alejandro Valverde of Movistar and Diego Rosa of Astana.
Source: DSG
