Diego Ulissi continued his love story with the oldest Italian classic when he won today's 94th edition of Milan-Turin on the steep climb to the Basilica di Superga on the outskirts of Turin. The Lampre rider attacked inside the final kilometre and held off Rafal Majka (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Daniel Moreno (Katusha) to add a win to the 2nd place he took last year.

With several top results in the Vuelta a Espana and Italian one-day races, Diego Ulissi has been knocking on the door for a big late-season win for some time. Today the Lampre rider finally got the victory that had long been forecasted when he held off the world elite in Italy's oldest cycling classic, Milan-Turin.

When the race last year was back on the calendar after a 4-year absence, Ulissi was one of the protagonists when he finished 2nd behind Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) on the steep 9,2% climb to the Basilica di Superga. Today he proved that the finish suits him perfectly when he put in a late attack from a select group and held off Rafal Majka and Daniel Moreno to take his 4th win of the season.

The win follows on from a number of near-misses for Ulissi who had finished 2nd in the GP Costa degli Etruschi and the 19th stage of the Vuelta a Espana. It makes up for the disappointment of Sunday's world championships where he crashed twice and was unable to support team captain Vincenzo Nibali as much as he had wanted.

Milan-Turin had attracted a formidable line-up with the likes of Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Daniel Moreno (Katusha) all on the start line. The race was the first in the series of Italian autumn classics which continues on Sunday with the biggest of them all, Il Lombardia.

You can follow that race live on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

A fast start

The 193,5km classic was held for the second year in a row after a long 4-year absence and mostly consisted of a long flat run from Milan to Turin. However, the race had a nasty sting in its tail as it finished with two passages of the steep 9,2% climb to Basilica di Superga with the finish line being located on the top of the ascent.

The race was off to an extremely fast start as several attacks were launched in the first part of the race. No less than 50,9km were covered during the very hectic first hour.

The break is formed

After 29km, Jay Robert Thomson (MTN-Qhubeka), Josef Cerny (CCC) and Bjorn Thurau (Europcar) escaped and they were soon joined by Maurits Lammertink (Vacansoleil) and Cesare Benedetti (NetApp). However, the peloton refused to give up and the peloton tried to chase it down for a long time.

Cerny was the first to fall off and a little later, Lammertink and Benedetti were also caught by the peloton. Soon after, the elastic snapped and Thomson and Thurau were allowed to build up a gap that reached a maximum of 7.40 while Movistar set a steady pace in the peloton.

Saxo-Tinkoff initiate the chase

Finally, the Saxo-Tinkoff team of defending champion Contador started to chase and they gradually brought the gap down. When they hit the Superga climb for the first time, the gap was 1.05 and the break was clearly doomed.

Thomson fell off the pace but both escapees were soon picked up by the peloton which was now led by Bardiani riders who prepared a win for Francesco Bongiorno. Kristijan Durasek (Lampre), Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani) attacked soon after and were joined by Majka and Jose Mendes (NetApp-Endura). The quartet never got much of an advantage and Europcar and Ag2r brought things back together.

Taborre tries his hand

Fabio Taborre (Vini Fantini) tried to attack in between the two passages of the climb but he was quickly swallowed up by the peloton which now consisted of around 30 riders. It was now clear that all would be decided on the final ascent of the climb.

Matteo Rabottini (Vini Fantini) launched several attacks on the lower slopes but Saxo-Tinkoff and Movistar kept things in check. They were, however, unable to respond when Franco Pellizotti (Androni) attacked.

A trio is formed

The former Italian champion was joined by Majka and Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r) while Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha) set a fierce pace in the peloton. Majka and later Pellizotti tried to escape on their own but when they passed the flamme rouge, the trio was back together and 15 seconds ahead of the peloton

Pozzovivo accelerated but was quickly brought back. Instead, Contador, Moreno and Valverde joined from behind and a little later Ulissi also got caught. Moreno tried to make one of his trademark accelerations but failed to get a gap.

Instead, Ulissi countered the move and there was no one stopping the Lampre rider. He held off Majka and Moreno to improve on last year's 2nd place by taking the biggest one-day win of his career.

Result:

1. Diego Ulissi

2. Rafal Majka

3. Daniel Moreno

4. Domenico Pozzovivo

5. Alberto Contador

6. Alejandro Valverde

7. Mauro Finetto

8. Thomas Voeckler

9. Matteo Rabottini

10. Franco Pellizotti