The Coppa Sabatini would be won by Eduard Prades (Caja-Rural) today ahead of Maurits Lammertink (Team Roompot) and Mauro Finetto (Southeast). MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung had Kristian Sbaragli finish in 11th position as the highest placed rider of the day.

For the most part, the Coppa Sabatini would be a slightly more relaxed Italian one day event as 3 riders went clear early on and the peloton allowed the trio to ride up to 8 minutes ahead. With 80km to go, only then did some sort of real chase begin.

Bardiani and Nippo were the most prominent teams on the front, doing the lion’s share of the work. The African team tried to leave it late and would only appear at the front of the race with 35km to go, assisting with the chase. As the pace went up, the peloton was thinned out until only half the peloton remained with just 15km to go.

MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung had Louis Meintjes, Merhawi Kudus, Serge Pauwels  and Sbaragli in the front group and all still in contention right to the end but it was Prades who would take a crafty win. Sbragali had to settle for 11th position on the line while Pauwels was 12th.

"It was a beautiful sunny day at our race today. The guys went into an unexpected situation as 3 guys made the breakaway of the day with the first attack at kilometer 3. The bunch took it pretty easy and Bardiani and Nippo Fantini made the pace for most of the race. In the final 20km we were at the front of the bunch and part of all the racing, the finish just did not work out for us," sports director Alex Sans Vega said.