A day constantly on the go earned Colombia-Coldeportes’ Miguel Angel Rubiano a ninth place in a Memorial Marco Pantani (Riccione-Cesenatico, 199 km) dominated by the Italian National Team.

Indeed, the Azzurri placed three men in the top three spots: Diego Ulissi, Giovanni Visconti and Vincenzo Nibali opened a gap on the Montevecchio climb and kept it all the way to the finish, where they ended in the same order. Rubiano came to the finish in the first chasing group, that also included his teammate Rodolfo Torres.

In the second ascent to the Montevecchio climb, the main difficulty of the day, an acceleration by Giovanni Visconti paved the way to a 24-man move, including Miguel Angel Rubiano; the group further selected later under the strong push by Ulissi and Nibali, reducing to 11 men, with the Colombian still sitting in a strong position.

Finally, in the penultimate passage on the climb, the Italian trio’s acceleration left the fellow rivals unable to respond: more riders eventually bridged back on the eight chasers, but still the group could not manage to reel back the three azzurri in the lead.

“Miguel hardly could have done much more than this, actually,” Sports Director Valerio Tebaldi told . “He rode a gutty race, he looked always focused and in the thick of the action, and in the final he worked, helped by Torres, to try to bring back the escapees. Rubiano and Torres’ display shows their condition and determination coming out of the Vuelta, and we hope they can be at the front also tomorrow at GP Industria e Commercio di Prato. Honestly, though, I am slightly disappointed by some other riders’ performance, as I would have expected to see different attitude and motivation from their side.”