On Saturday, Team Giant-Shimano put on a great display in the Strade Bianche when they put several riders in the front group on the toughest gravel sector and two riders in the final top 10. Yesterday they continued their great showing in Roma Maxima when Simon Geschke took his second top 10 result in a row.

After Saturday’s Strade Bianche, Simon Geschke said he aimed to finish as high as possible in the front group today, and he delivered on his promise. Thomas Damuseau made the most of his fresh legs by getting in the early breakaway of seven riders early on, and they set about building a healthy gap before the business end of the race.

All of the climbs came in the second half of the race and it was these difficulties that sparked the attacks in the chasing bunch. The break was soon swallowed up and two riders pulled away in counter.

Tom Dumoulin showed his power by getting in a select chase group behind on one of the climbs but this wasn’t to be and a larger front group all but came back together in the closing stages. Alejandro Valverde just held on for the win, as his breakaway companion Domenico Pozzovivo was passed on the line by a charging chase group.

Simon Geschke kept out of trouble in the run in and sprinted to ninth place, one place down on his result at Strade Bianche yesterday.

Coach, Aike Visbeek said: “It was a good race today, the guys were at a good level but at the end we didn’t quite get the result that we deserved.

“Tom D was in the first chase group and was looking strong but the front groups came back together so the guys set up the sprint for Simon. The communication was good between them and they got him into a good position but he lacked a bit of speed in the sprint.

“It shows that we are on the right track and it will be a good boost for the guys’ self-confidence.”

Tom Dumoulin said: “It has been a really good weekend for us here in Italy. Today was another good day and we did a good job. My legs weren’t great to start with but they got better and better as the race went on and I was with some top climbers in the counter attack at the end.

“We got caught in the last 10km and then set the sprint up for Simon, but I didn’t have much left and couldn’t contribute a lot. I think we deserved better today, but we were present and rode well as a team.”