Niccolo Bonifazio (Lampre-Merida) won the GP Lugano from a small group sprint, coming in just ahead of Francesco Gavazzi (Southeast) and Matteo Montaguti (AG2R La Mondiale). Unfortunately, Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung had no rider placing in the top 10.

The African team can be pleased with its day’s work though as Daniel Teklehaimanot and Nic Dougall made the big 15 rider break of the day. Teklehaimanot would go on to win all 3 of the GPM’s on offer before going solo with 50km to go.

Teklehaimanot showed great strength and his brave ride was only brought to an end with 30km to go as a reduced peloton of around 40 riders reeled him in. Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung had a strong presence in this select group and Natnael Berhane would put in an attack in the final 10km of the race.

The race would split up further in the run to the line and a small group of riders would reel in Berhane’s move with 5km to go. With no sprinter among all the African climbers the team were not in contention for a top placing.

"We won the GPM competition today with Daniel Teklehaimanot," sports director Jens Zemke said. "He was in the lead for just about the complete race after he was in the early break along with Nic Dougall and 15 or 16 others. He attacked near the end as well but was brought back. In the last lap 9 riders escaped with Natnael part of the move but they also got brought back around 20 riders. Unfortunately we had no riders in that group so no placing today but the boys rode pretty well and Daniel was on the podium so that is okay."