Nicola Ruffoni again showed that his potential is unlimited when he was beaten into third by Marcel Kittel and Mark Cavendish in photo finish on the final stage of the Tour of Britain. The result came one week after he had finished second behin Kittel in the opening stage.

The Tour of Britain sprints were set to be a two-rider battle between Marcel Kittel and Mark Cavendish but ended up having a third protagonist. Super talent Nicola Ruffoni who had already beaten Cavendish a few weeks ago in the Tour du Poitou-Charentes, turned out to be fully at the level of the two giants.

In the opening sprint in Liverpool, he was narrowly beaten into second by Kittel but managed to hold off Cavendish. Yesterday the three sprinters battled it out for the win in the final stage, with Kittel narrowly holding off Cavendish and Ruffoni in a photo finish.

The result ended a great week for Bardiani who won the queen stage with Edoardo Zardini. The climber did a surprisingly good final time trial to finish the race in 4th.

"We are really happy with the performance of our riders," sports director Roberto Reverberi said. "The level at the Tour of Britain has been really high and to win a beautiful climbing stage, take the yellow jersey and achieve great results every day with young athletes, makes us proud and at the same time it has been of great value for our sponsors. Now we must continue on this path until the end of the season, I am convinced that the best is yet to come."