Once again Team Sky played a dominating role in a major race as their famous train powered along at the front of the race for most of the day. Pre-race captains Geraint Thomas and Edvald Boasson Hagen were both eliminated from contention, but Ian Stannard stepped in to produce an amazing performance and end up 6th.

Coming in to this year's Milan-Sanremo, Team Sky were some somewhat of an unknown. In another unprecedented step from the British team, their classics roster chose not to do their final preparations in the traditional build-up races of Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico. Instead, their troops gathered for another of the team's famous training camps on the mountainous island of Tenerife.

The team showed its intentions immediately after the restart of the race. Kanstantsin Siutsou was seen ploughing along at the front of the peloton for several kilometres in an attempt to reel in the day's early break. As soon as the race hit the three short successive climbs of Capo Mele, Capo Cervo and Capo Berta, he was joined by world's TT bronze medallist Vasil Kiryienka whose strong tempo tired plenty of legs ahead of the decisive climbs of Cipressa and Poggio.

Disaster struck on the approach to the first of those main difficulties as one of the team's pre-race captains Geraint Thomas hit the deck. He escaped major injuries, but he was unable to return to the main group, and after showing his strength with a 4th place in Omloop Het Nieuwblad the absence of the Brit was a huge blow to the plans of the British team.

Just moments later the team's main card, Norwegian phenomenon Edvald Boasson Hagen, was dropped on the early slopes of the Cipressa, and the team had to reinvent their strategy. That new plan turned out to be British champion Ian Stannard who entered a dangerous escape group on the subsequent descent, and in the company of Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Eduard Vorganov (Katusha) he entered the decisive Poggio climb 30 seconds ahead of the Cannondale-led peloton.

He impressed by keeping up with Chavanel to crest the summit as the first rider. As they were joined by four of the pre-race favourite, his strong accelerations on the final flat run-in to the line forced Peter Sagan (Cannondale) to spend plenty of his precious energy to close the gaps. He had no power to be competitive in the sprint and ended up as the last man in the group, but his 6th place marked a considerable improvement from Sky's previous achievements in La Primavera.

With Bernhard Eisel completing a solid showing by sprinting to a fine 10th place, sports director Nicolas Portal was happy to see his riders step up after the loss of their captains.

"It was a shame for G (Geraint Thomas, ed.)," he said. "I think he really could have done something in this race and he certainly had good legs before the crash. But it was great to see Ian seize the opportunity and show what he can do."

Like most others, Portal reserved some comments for the terrific weather conditions.

"It was an unbelievable day," he said. "On days like today I am happy to be a DS in the car! The conditions were incredibly difficult with having to stop and start again, but I think this is a performance we can be proud of as a team."

Stannard's performance marks another step in his steady progression. He did a tremendous job by escorting Chris Froome through the flat stages of last year's Vuelta, and he put in a strong attempt to foil the favourites towards the end of last year's world championships on the tough Valkenburg course.

He now turns his attention to the cobbled classics.