John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) won Milan-San Remo after he saw off Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) and Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) in a gripping sprint finish on the Via Roma.

Like last year, Kristoff was dropped off in first position by his teammate Luca Paolini but this time around he was forced to open his sprint from a little further out than he would have liked, and he was overhauled by Degenkolb in the final 50 metres.

In a blanket finish, Matthews held off Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) for third, while Niccolò Bonifazio (Lampre-Merida) took fifth ahead of Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis).

The finale was animated by a two-man move featuring Geraint Thomas (Sky) and Daniel Oss (BMC), who forged clear after the Cipressa, before the Sky man then attacked alone on the slopes of the Poggio.

Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) bridged across shortly before the summit while Sagan and Matthews followed closely, but despite Van Avermaet’s white-knuckle descent of the Poggio, he couldn’t prevent a sizeable group finish, as Paolini took over for Katusha once the road flattened out. 

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