Tirreno-Adriatico: Kwiatkowski holds on to win the overall

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Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) took the overall victory at Tirreno-Adriatico after extending his race lead in a wet time trial. Kwiatkowski went into the final stage with a three-second advantage over Damiano Caruso (BMC Racing), but put time into the Italian over the 10-kilometre course. 

In the blue skinsuit of race leader, victory never looked in doubt for Kwiatkowski, who posted a time of 11:34, just 20 seconds shy of the day's winner Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing). Caruso gave away 21 seconds to Kwiatkowski, but held onto second place in the overall standings, despite a strong ride from Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) that saw him leapfrog Mikel Landa (Movistar) into the final podium spot.

"When I was warming up it started raining so I was scared something might go wrong. I had to go with lower tyre pressure. It was tricky, I don't know if there were crashes but there were a couple of corners, and anything could happen. I had to be careful but I had good feelings today and that's why I could finish so well," said Kwiatkowski.

"That's my most important stage race victory. So far I won twice Algarve which isn't WorldTour, but this is a beautiful race with a beautiful trophy. Tirreno-Adriatico is one of hardest stage races to win so I'm really happy to be on the first step.

"It's been a difficult week for all Team Sky, we had some bad luck with Geraint Thomas, but at the end of the day we were motivated to have a really good race and that's how it was."

Dennis gives BMC bookend victories

Dennis took the stage victory after rounding the pan-flat course in dry conditions in a time of 11:14. Jos van Emden (LottoNL-Jumbo) came closest to toppling the Australian national champion but was four seconds shy of Dennis' effort and had to settle for second place with Team Sky's Jonathan Castroviejo a further four seconds back to finish third on the day.

"To be honest, I was nervous about it. I was looking at the best times on this course thinking what I needed to aim for," Dennis explained. "In the end, I thought I needed to go faster than last year to win and I was right to say that because Jos did the same time as I did last year so if I didn't beat my time then I wouldn't have won.

"We won the first stage in the team time trial, it was a hard one to win. From then, it was all teamwork and working around Damiano and trying to make sure he had the best possible chance to win the overall. Unfortunately, he didn't win but he has been exceptional this week making sure he didn't lose too much time on the mountain stages. Hats off to him for second overall."

After a week of tough racing, the 2018 Tirreno-Adriatico drew to a close with a crucial 10-kilometre test around San Benedetto del Tronto. Clouds loomed overhead as the riders prepared for the final effort of the one-week race, but much of the peloton would enjoy dry conditions.

Trek-Segafredo shared around the honour of fastest time with Ryan Mullen setting an early benchmark of 11:38 before he was beaten by his teammate Mads Pedersen, who rolled around the 10km course in a time of 11:22. Pedersen's effort would allow him more than half an hour in the hot-seat before Dennis came along and bested him. There were a few tense moments as Van Emden closed in on the finish line, but once the rain began to fall it was always going to be hard to push Dennis off the top spot.

As the final few riders rolled off the start ramp, the focus turned from the stage win to the overall victory. Thomas started the day just 29 seconds behind his teammate Kwiatkowski in the standings, despite that untimely mechanical earlier in the race, and had a genuine shot at moving back into the blue jersey. The Welshman finished in a time of 11:37, which would prove more than enough to move ahead of Landa, who slipped down to sixth overall after a poor performance in the time trial.

It looked like Thomas might be able to cleat Caruso too, but the Italian did enough to hold him off by eight seconds. There were no such worries for Kwiatkowski, who went three seconds quicker than Thomas over the course and increased his winning margin over Caruso to 24 seconds.

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