Kwiatkowski stuns Sagan to win MilanSan Remo

MI LAN: Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski stunned world champion Peter Sagan in a thrilling threeup sprint to win the 108th MilanSan Remo.

Kwiatkowski, the 2014 world champion, claimed his first “La Classicissima” after launching his sprint late to stun Sagan at the finish in San Remo.

Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe (Quick Step) finished close behind to claim a well-deserved podium place on his debut after 291km of racing from Milan.

“I’m very happy, although I actually didn’t expect to win,” said Kwiatkowski, who had been scheduled to work for team-mate Elia Viviani and help set the Italian up for a winning sprint.

“I won Strade Bianche recently, and now to come and win “La Primavera” is just ... incredible.”

Fresh from winning two stages in commanding fashion at TirrenoAdriatico, Sagan started Milan-San Remo as the man to beat from a quality-packed sprint field that included 2014 champion Alexander Kristoff, 2015 winner John Degenkolb and Frenchman Arnaud Demare, who stunned the field to triumph last year.

Kristoff went on to finish fourth at five seconds in arrears and at the head of a chasing bunch featuring Colombian fast man Fernando Gaviria, Demare, Degenkolb, Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni and Viviani.

But despite leaving all his prerace rivals behind after a decisive attack on the Poggio climb six kilometres from the finish, Sagan suffered the misfortune of taking Kwiatkowski with him when the Pole counter- attacked with Alaphilippe.

A “long” sprint on the home straight then left the Slovakian short of juice in the final metres when Kwiatkowski appeared from behind his wheel to snatch victory at the line.