Cycling news – Magnificent Julian Alaphilippe triumphant at Milano-Sanremo

A select group of 11 riders – including the defending champion Vincenzo Nibali, the world champion Alejandro Valverde and the 2017 winner Kwiatkowski – battled like gladiators on the via Roma for the spoils, but it was the in-form Alaphilippe who emerged victorious.

The 26-year-old irrepressible Frenchman latched on to an attack from Nibali’s Bahrain-Merida team-mate Matej Mohoric with 600m to spare before holding Naesen (Lotto Soudal) and Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) at bay on the home straight to snatch his seventh – and biggest – win of the year.

Twice runner-up in La Primavera, Slovakia’s Peter Sagan (Bora Hansgrohe) took fourth place ahead of Slovenia's Mohoric, with the top 10 completed by Movistar’s Valverde, Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Nibali, Simon Clarke (EF Education First) and the European champion Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott).

Alaphilippe’s victory was a nineteenth of the season for his all-conquering Deceuninck-QuickStep team – and, following compatriot Thibaut Pinot’s victory in last season’s Il Lombardia, marked the first time France have won successive Monuments since 1992.

The winning move came on the infamous final climb of the Poggio as Alaphilippe rode clear with Sagan, Kwiatkowski, Valverde, Trentin, Naesen and Van Aert near the summit. Nibali, Mohoric, Clarke and Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) joined on the descent to set up the showpiece finale.

But after early digs from Trentin, Naesen and Mohoric, it was left to the man of the moment Alaphilippe to show his class by powering clear to win a nail-biting reduced sprint.

It was Alaphilippe's first victory in one of cycling's five Monuments – having finished third in Milano-Sanremo in his maiden appearance in 2017 and runner-up at both Liege-Bastogne-Liege (2015) and Il Lombardia (2017).

"It's difficult to realise what I did and what my team did," an emotional Alaphilippe said at the finish. "They protected me all day. Tim Declercq was pulling all race and in the final we controlled and we make the race harder and I have to do no mistakes.

"I was really focused to control the attack and with 600 metres to go when Mohoric went to attack I said it's now or never. It's unbelievable – I saw my teammates after the finish and everybody was crying.

"I made a big effort at the top of the Poggio to make a big selection and to see what could happen. At the end I was only with strong riders and I tried to recover in the downhill. In the last two kilometres I said I want to win – no second place.

"I need time to realise [what I've achieved] – I'm very happy."

Under sunshine and blue skies, the day’s break formed shortly after the start of the race with 10 riders going clear en route to building up a maximum lead of just under 10 minutes in the 110th edition of La Primavera.

If at times it felt like a Novo Nordisk team time trial that was because the pro-continental outfit had four riders among the leaders promoting their changing diabetes message.

The Novo Nordisk quartet of Joonas Henttala, Andrea Peron, Charles Planet and Umberto Poli was joined by Fausto Masnada (Androni Giocattoli), Mirco Maestri and Alessandro Tonelli (both Bardiani CSF), Guy Sagiv (Israel Cycling Academy), Luca Raggio and Sebastian Schonberger (both Neri Sottoli).

The fact that no one had won Milano-Sanremo from an early break since the Swiss Erich Maechler in 1987 did not deter 27-year-old Maestri, present on the front of the race for the fourth successive year.

Going over the first test of the day, the long Passo del Turchino, the gap had come down to six minutes for the escapees as they dropped down towards the Mediterranean Sea. That gap was gradually whittled down as the race hugged the Ligurian coast ahead of the Tre Capi climbs – the Capo Mele, Capo Cervo and Capo Berta.

Back on the front of the pack, riders from Quick-Step, Lotto Soudal, UAE Team Emirates and Bora-Hansgrohe took pulls in a bid to neutralise the gap, with a trio of Direct Energie riders tucked in behind. But it was the familiar face of QuickStep's Tim Declercq, laying the foundations for Alaphilippe, on the front of the peloton.

The pacing worked, with the gap coming down to 2’30” minutes by the time the leaders hit the Capo Mele with just over 50km remaining. Austrian Schonberger made the first move ahead of the Capo Berta once the break’s gap had come down to 1’20”.

Schonberger was reeled in and dropped by the Italian Masnada, who rode through the red smoke from the ubiquitous flares from a group of animated fans before cresting the summit with a little gap over his fellow escapees.

With his fellow escapees swept up, Masnada held on until the race hit the Cipressa where the Astana team of Magnus Cort came to the front to set a fast tempo. The likes of world champion Alejandro Valverde, the 2016 winner Arnaud Demare, Philippe Gilbert and Peter Sagan were all near the front on the climb – but the race was all together going over the summit, with the likes of Dylan Groenewegen and Nacer Bouhanni just about holding on.

On the twisting and technical descent, it was the local rider Niccolo Bonifazio – who finished fifth in his Sanremo debut in 2015 – who threw caution to the wind with a brave attack and dare-devil descent. The Direct Energie rider built up a maximum lead of 22 seconds over the pack but the Italian sprinter’s audacious attempt was neutralised before the decisive climb of the Poggio.

A high tailwind-assisted pace on the Poggio meant the attacks did not come until later on with the Italian Alberto Bettiol (EF Education First) opening up a small gap before Alaphilippe led the charge behind.

Sagan, Kwiatkowski and Valvarde were all quick to latch on to the Frenchman’s back wheel as a select group of seven crested the summit with 5.5km remaining after the fastest Poggio ascent since 1995.

Led by the Dutchman Dumoulin, a handful of riders were able to chase back on following a brief moment of hesitation among the leaders on the descent. Germany's John Degenkolb of Trek-Segafredo, the 2015 champion, was part of the select group but saw his chances cruelly torn away thanks to a dropped chain.

As the road flattened out both Naesen and Trentin put in early attacks as the Belgian Van Aert dug deep to pull things back together.

Defending champion Nibali managed to join the party with team-mate Mohoric ahead of the final kilometre – and it was Mohoric who threw down the hammer with 600m remaining.

Alaphilippe – beaten by Kwiatkowski and Sagan in the 2017 finale – responded the quickest, the Frenchman zipping clear and sitting up nonchalantly to celebrate the biggest win of his career as bridesmaids Naesen and Kwiatkowski battled it out for second place in his wake.

It was Alaphilippe’s seventh win of the season following victories in San Juan, Colombia 2.1, Tirreno-Adriatico and Strade Bianche.

QuickStep now draw level with Astana on 19 wins for the season having won all the major classic races so far, including Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, Le Samyn and Strade Bianche. They can now add the first of five Monuments to a list which is only bound to get bigger.