Led by the in-form Sonny Colbrelli, Bardiani were the favourites to win yesterday's GP Beghelli and take the overall win in the Coppa Italia and an invitation for the Giro d'Italia in the process. However, the team missed out on the victory and Nicola Ruffoni's 8th place was only enough for second in the battle for the coveted wild card, with the team finishing just 1 point behind Neri Sottoli.

The victory that they were looking for during the whole 17th edition of GP Beghelli (196.3km), didn’t arrive for Bardiani – CSF Pro Team. Indeed, Sonny Colbrelli and his fellows were suprised by a late attack of three riders and had some troubles in the bunch sprint in their attempt to get some decisive points for the Coppa Italia Team Ranking. After the race, they finished second, only one point behind Neri Sottoli – Alè.

All day Bardiani took control of the last 2014 race, working hard for its fast riders. All seemed go according to plam for the italian team, but during the final lap with only 2km to go Conti (LAM), Zakarin (RVL) and Koren (CAN) attacked. They held off the peloton in the final straight, with Conti taking his first pro victory.

One second later, Andriato won the sprint of the chasers, with Nicola Ruffoni 8th as the first rider from Bardiani – CSF Pro Team.

With this result, Neri Sottoli – Alè kept the Coppa Italia leadership by a single point while the green team finished 2nd.

Sonny Colbrelli clearly won the individual Coppa Italia and the Youth Classification.

”Unfortunately it didn’t go as we expected, especially after the big effort made by the whole team during the race," sports director Bruno Reverberi said. " We missed in the decisive moment and then with a bad final sprint we lost the chance to get the Coppa Italia win.

"It’s a pity because we believed in this great possibility but we can’t forget how wonderful our 2014 has been. Really high quality wins gave us a new dimension. Now we’ll take some weeks of rest and the we’ll start to plan the 2015 cycling season”.