Dario Cataldo and Peter Kennaugh completed the Sky dominance of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali when the Italian won the final time trial to move himself into second behind his British teammate on GC. With four out of five stage wins, a 1-2 in the overall, the points jersey and the victory in the teams classification, the team found itself in dreamland at the end of the four-day race.

Pete Kennaugh rode hard in the final time trial to seal a landmark overall victory at Settimana Coppi e Bartali as Dario Cataldo won the stage.

The Manxman finished off an incredible week for Team Sky in their debut at the Italian event, winning the overall by 12 seconds and leading home a 1-2 finish overall thanks to Cataldo’s final-stage heroics.

A time of 16 minutes and 28 seconds saw the Italian win the time trial by eight seconds, elevating himself onto the second step of the podium in the process.

A technical course and uphill finish provided a unique challenge but played into the hands of Kennaugh who produced a measured ride to confirm victory.

Four stage wins marked a more than successful return for the team, with Ben Swift kicking things off with victory on the opening morning, followed by a team time trial success in the afternoon.

The next day saw Kennaugh claim his first professional victory to move into a 42-second race lead, a margin he carried into the final day, where Cataldo finished off a momentum week in style.

After taking an impressive victory Cataldo talked about a great week and his thoughts going into a tricky final TT.

“Everyone has done a really good job this week and it has been a strong team effort," he told TeamSky.com. "From a personal point of view I was really happy to do a good ride and to move up to second in GC.

“I thought it might be possible to take second ahead of the stage but with such a short time trial it could be difficult. There was not that much opportunity to take time. It was not a completely flat time trial where a climber could lose a lot of time. I gave it my best and it turned out okay!

“We won a lot this week but I think the nicest thing about our performance was that we always chose the right tactics. We stuck to what we talked about each morning and we worked together in the right way. That is not easy to do day after day.”

“It was a perfect end to a perfect week for us,” said Sports Director Dan Frost. “It’s like being in dreamland. To win four out of five stages is not a common thing to do but the team was super strong this race.

“Now having Dario win the trial and to move up to make it a 1-2 overall is also a really nice result. We won the points jersey with Swifty, the team classification and it was really nice to see Pete take the overall.

“It was such great work from everyone. Obviously it will be difficult to follow this up in the next few races but it is a really good experience for everyone and it is great for morale going forwards.”