Gilbert attacked in vain on the descent
 

BMC Racing Team world road champion, Philippe Gilbert, made his move to split the race on the rain-soaked descent of the Cipressa, about 20 km from the finish line at yesterday’s Milan-San Remo in an attempt to drop the sprinters among his rivals.

"But the organization of the group was not great," he said afterwards on the BMC website. "Then three guys went [Sylvain Chavanel (OPQS), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha) and Ian Stannard (Sky)] and then Jürgen Roelandts (Lotto Belisol) and I decided to wait because the bunch was pretty big behind with teammates there."

However, the three ultimately ended up being part of the group of six that reached the finish line before Gilbert’s teammate, Taylor Phinney. "They were riding maybe 65 kph and we were doing 55 kph with no help," Gilbert said.