Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack) was once again a main actor in Milan-Sanremo when he was part of the 6-man group to fight for the victory. In the end he ended up 3rd, and that was hugely satisfying on a cold day where he thought that he would not even finish the race.

Today's edition of Milan-Sanremo will be remembered for years for a number of reasons. Its thrilling, unpredictable final was a great show, but first and foremost the cold and rainy conditions which forced organizers to remove the Passo del Turchino and Le Manie climbs from the course, made for an epic edition.

It was difficult to see when he joined the final 6 man break on the Poggio and put in one of his trademark attacks on the descent, but eventual podium finisher Fabian Cancellara had actually been close to not even being part of the race's final.

“Such a strange race," Cancellara exclaimed after the race. "Before the feed zone I thought I was going to have to stop because I was freezing.  Then I went back to the car, changed my gloves, got renewed confidence and motivation from the car and kept going.”

Cancellara's own crisis made him admire the effort of his fellow riders even more.

“It was a really great team effort," he said. "They were warriors. I didn’t expect to finish so well in this race.  I had some bad moments today, so I’m happy with third place.  In fact, I’m happy to be at the finish at all.  (Gerald, ed.) Ciolek won, but everyone is a hero today.”

After shuttle buses had transported the riders to the city of Cogoleto, a number of riders - among others Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) - chose not to reenter the race. Cancellara was tempted to take a similar stance, but his responsibility as a team leader kept him in the battle.

“I think of the real Milano-Sanremo where you start with the sun like yesterday in training, then arrive here in Sanremo without taking a break in the bus along the way, so it was a crazy day," he said. " We’ve seen so many races cancelled recently because of snow, and then today we had to drive around the Turchino in the bus because of snow.  I had a number of problems today, namely that I didn’t eat enough after the restart.  I would’ve liked to go to sleep in the bus, but of course that wasn’t possible.  We had a plan this morning and I’m one of the leaders of the team, so I wanted to finish this.  Everyone has done a great job today.  Everyone can go home and be a bit of a winner today.”

Sergent: I will remember this for a while

Cancellara had every reason to praise his teammates who fought through the cold to set up their captain for his final victory. Time trial specialist Jesse Sergent was one of those.

“It was definitely crazy cold today," Sergent said after the race. "It was my third Sanremo and one I’ll be remembering for awhile.   Most of the day was spent fighting the cold and finding ways to help Fabian and stay around him for as long as I could.”

Radioshack has had a slow start to the season where Bob Jungels victory in the GP Nobili Rubinetterie on Thursday was the team's first on European soil. The team management has, however, been unperturbed by the lack of results and always reiterated that the focus was firmly on the classics.

Sports direct Dirk Demol was impressed by his team's spirit in their first big season objective even if he admitted that their team leader is not as strong as last year.

“Usually it’s difficult to keep the riders motivated on a day like today, but I’ll say rravo to the entire team," Demol said. "We didn’t have to push them on the restart – they were ready.  This race was a big objective for the team and has always been a goal, so we didn’t have to remind them what this meant."

"We wanted to go for the win with Fabian," he continued. "He’s probably a little bit behind where he was last year, but we could see in Tirreno that his form is coming right along.  We also had confidence that Popo (Yaroslav Popovych, ed.), (Gregory, ed.) Rast and Maxime (Monfort, ed.) could play a part in the final.  They were all there.  The plan was to give Fabian the maximum support and they did a great job.  We were counting on him to try something and he didn’t disappoint us.  Here he is on the podium behind two sprinters that were just faster than him.  Well done.”

Fabian Cancellara will now turn his attention to the cobbled classics starting with an attempt to reclaim his title in the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen on Friday.