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After the key mountain stage of Tirreno-Adriatico was cancelled due to snow in some of the mountain passes, the penultimate stage was a last chance for the overall victory, and world champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) gave it his best shot only to be denied by Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing).
Van Avermaet out-sprinted Sagan after a 23km long breakaway that included overnight race leader Zdenek Stybar and two of his Etixx-Quickstep teammates Fernando Gaviria and Matteo Trentin. It was sparked after Sagan claimed the final intermediate sprint and his teammate Daniele Bennati and later Oscar Gatto drove the pace to pull Sagan clear.
Also along for the ride was Michal Kwiatkowski, who was third on the stage, while Stybar lost four seconds and the race lead to Van Avermaet.