Thousands remember Michele Scarponi at his funeral in Filottrano

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Thousands of family, friends and tifosi lined the roads as Michele Scarponi's funeral procession made its way from a service in the local football stadium to the cemetery in Filottrano on Tuesday, with those gathered saying goodbye with applause for the charismatic Astana rider, who was killed on Saturday while training near his home.

World champion Peter Sagan was among the riders who attended, but said he was "not here as a world champion, but as a friend".

Fabio Aru, Dario Cataldo, Vincenzo Nibali, Enrico Gasparotto, Gilberto Simoni, Ivan Basso, Alexander Vinokourov and Italian national coach Davide Cassani were also present for the ceremony to bid farewell to the rider who had delivered Astana's first victory of 2017 just over one week ago at the Tour of the Alps.

Scarponi's brother Marco read an article from four years ago that described Michele, saying, "in his legs are not only hard work and sacrifice, but an invisible one percent of history, that long and unstoppable collective story that makes us fall in love with cycling," according to Gazzetta dello Sport.