Nibali holds off sprinters to land Milan-Sanremo victory

Vincenzo Nibali won his third career Monument in brilliant fashion as he held off the field in a dramatic finish to Milan-Sanremo.

The Shark of Messina is best known for his success in Grand Tours, but he added to his two victories in Il Lombardia as this 294-kilometre race came down to a matter of metres separating Nibali from Australian Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) and Frenchman Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) at the line.

Bahrain-Merida’s Nibali attacked on the Poggio and led by 10 seconds at the top of the climb which so often proves decisive in the first Monument of the season.

That gap was cut to seven seconds as he came into town, but the 33-year-old, a winner of all three Grand Tours, had just enough in the tank to hold off the sprinters.

After a strong headwind had discouraged attacks in the finale, the rhythm of the race was broken on the approach to the Poggio when Dimension Data’s Mark Cavendish suffered a frightening crash, appearing to flip completely over after hitting a bollard.

Nibali timed his attack to perfection on the Poggio, following a move from Bora-Hansgrohe’s Gregor Muhlberger on the ascent before leaving the Austrian behind with 6.4km left.

The combined forces of world champion Peter Sagan, defending champion Michal Kwiatkowski and home hopeful Matteo Trentin could not bring him back on the run in to Sanremo as Nibali put his renowned descending skills to good use.

Trentin briefly threatened to catch him once the road flattened out, but the Mitchelton-Scott man’s reserves ran out first and he was swallowed up by the group.

Nibali had time to look behind him as he came down the Via Roma and raised his arms to celebrate before pipping the chasing pack to the line.