Daniele Bennati (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) won the bunch sprint behind solo victor Bob Jungels (Radioshack) in yesterday's GP Nobili Rubinetterie. Even if his first season victory eluded him, the result was an important confidence boost ahead of his favourite race, Milan-Sanremo.

Daniele Bennati has had a frustrating opening to his first season at Team Saxo-Tinkoff. Until yesterday he had failed to produce any noticeable result, and his wish to be amongst the action in some of the mass sprints in Tirreno-Adriatico was never realized.

As the Italian sprinter told in an exclusive interview with CyclingQuotes.com, Milan-Sanremo is his dream race, and with the big Italian classic looming in the horizon he needed a confidence boost ahead of his big objective.

His victory in the bunch sprint yesterday gave him just that, and it also was an important signal to his team that they have any reason to believe in their captain on Sunday. Bennati was one of only a few sprinters to survive both ascents of the race's main climb, and he asked his team - including multiple grand tour winner Alberto Contador - to chase down lone escapee Bob Jungels. That mission failed, but Bennati's finishing sprint showed his team that he is ready.

“After the final climb with 16 kilometers to go, we went to the front of the field and started closing the gap with Movistar, but Jungels was riding exceptionally fast," sports director Fabrizio Guidi told. "In the sprint for the remaining podium spots, Bennati was the fastest rider. It provides us and especially "Benna" with a large amount of confidence and obviously a stronger hope that we can race for the win in Milano-Sanremo.”

The team's other captain for Milan-Sanremo, Matti Breschel, also showed growing form by finishing 12th in the race.

You can follow Bennati's efforts live on CyclingQuotes.com/live on Sunday starting at 14.30. Until then you can prepare for the race by studying our preview.