Team Sky continued their complete domination of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali when they ruled today's final 10km time trial of the race. Former Italian champion Dario Cataldo beat Matteo Rabottini (YellowFluo) and Diego Rosa (Androni) on the short, hilly course and did enough to move himself into 2nd in GC behind his race-winning teammate Peter Kennaugh.

The Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali ended up being a complete Tour de Force by Team Sky. After Ben Swift's win on the opening half-stage, their victory in the team time trial and Peter Kennaugh's triumph in the queen stage, the team added today's final time trial to what was almost a clean sweep of stages in the Italian race.

Dario Cataldo proved that it is no coincidence that he is a former Italian champion in the individual discipline when he took a convincing win on the hilly course that ended with a 9% climb to the finish. The Italian put 8 seconds into Matteo Rabottini while Diego Rosa was 4 seconds further adrift in 3rd.

Cataldo had started the day in 3rd on GC and knew that he had a great chance of moving up into 2nd as he was only 18 seconds behind climber Francesco Manuel Bongiorno (Bardiani). By putting 49 seconds into the lanky Italian, Cataldo did what was needed to gain a spot on GC.

Despite beating him by 48 seconds, however, Cataldo couldn't dethrone his teammate Kennaugh who had led the race since winning the queen stage on day two. Nonetheless, it was a fitting end to a complete domination from Team Sky that the team ended up taking the top two positing in the final overall standings.

Rabottini benefited from his excellent time trial to move onto the overall podium while a disappointed Bongiorno dropped down to fourth. The only team who broke the Sky dominance was Cannondale as Elia Viviani beat Swift in yesterday's sprint stage.

The Italian season now takes a big break as the next race on the calendar is the Giro del Trentino in the second half of April. The four-day race is the traditional warm-up for the Giro and will be the scene of an interesting battle between overall contenders like Richie Porte, Cadel Evans, and Michele Scarponi.

A hilly time trial

Fittingly, the Settimana Internazional Coppi e Bartali which usually has a bit of everything, ended with a time trial but the 10km course from Pavullo to Castello di Montecuccolo was certainly not the usual flat affair for the specialists. Being mostly flat, the stage had a nasty sting in its tail as the final kilometre was almost all uphill and ended with a steep 9% ramp to the finish at the Castello.

The first rider down the ramp was Gianni Franco D'Intino (Vega) who started his stage at 13.00 local time and he set a time of 19.50 to post the first mark of the day. However, he was quickly beaten by several riders, with James Piccoli (Amore e Vita) being the early leader.

Carboni takes the lead

The Canadian didn't enjoy long time in the hot seat as Domen Novak (Adria Mobil) set a time of 18.09 to move into the hot seat but he was quickly beaten by Adrien Niyonshuti (MTN) who was the first rider to go below the 18-minute mark with a time of 17.54 Fortunato Baliani (Christina Watches) equaled that performance but was a few hundredths of a second too slow.

Niyounshiti led the race for a long time until Giovanni Carboni (Aero Zero) knocked him down the leader board with a time of 17.43. However, everybody were crushed by the excellent performance of Alexander Foliforov (Itera-Katusha) whose time of 16.46 was almost a minute faster.

Kiryienka disappoints

Alessio Taliani (Androni) moved into second with a time of 17.28 before Artem Ovechkin (Rusvelo) continued the Russian domination by posting a time of 17.04. Donato de Ieso (Bardiani) moved onto the provisional podium when he posted the third fastest time.

Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN-Qhubeka) got close when he moved into second by stopping the clock at 17.00 while one of the favourites Vasil Kiryienka (Sky) had a disappointing ride with 17.09. Defending champion Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) who had already fallen out of GC contention, could only manage 17.10.

Great rides by MTN riders

Louis Meintjes continued the great MTN performance when he posted a time of 17.06 but less than a minute later Alessandro Mazzi (Utensilnord) was the second rider to go below 17 minutes when he set a time of 16.57. Another MTN rider, Merhawi Kudus (MTN), stopped the clock in 17.07 to make it another one from the team in the top 10.

The GC battle was now about to heat up as we were into the final 10 riders. Davide Villella (Cannondale) was the first to get close with a time of 17.07 but it was Diego Rosa (Androni) who rocked the boat when he finally knocked Foliforov out of the hot seat with a time of 16.40.

Caruso gets close

Rafael Valls Ferri (Lampre-Merida) went below 17 minutes with 16.58 while Franco Pellizotti (Androni) was slightly better with 16.52. Damiano Caruso (Cannondale) got very close but at the line he missed two seconds to take the lead.

Less than two minutes later, Rabottini powered across the line in a time that was 4 seconds faster than Rosa's but he didn't get long time to enjoy his lead. Cataldo was the next rider across the line and his time of 16.28 was by far the fastest.

It was now only to wait for Bongiorno and Kennaugh to finish their riders but as both were far off the mark, Cataldo took the win while Kennaugh defended his overall lead.