Fabio Duarte outpaced his five breakaway rivals to win the one-day Coppa Sabatini in Peccioli, Italy.
The Colombia Coldeportes rider had raced clear with his fellow attackers in the final 22km of the 198.6km looping route around Tuscany, and after evading his pursuers, he blew his rivals away on the uphill drag to the finish and crossed the line triumphant with a couple of bike length to spare.
Miguel Ángel Rubiano (Androni Giocattoli) took second place to seal a one-two of Colombian riders, with Italian Matteo Rabottini (Farnese Vini) taking the remaining spot of the podium.
The action had begun under clear skies with 11 riders escaping the clutches of the bunch early on and opening up a 1min 50sec advantage as they passed onto the first six-lap circuit.
They were eventually joined by 16 riders, and from that group another six riders emerged to lead the race onto a shorter four-lap finishing loop.
Team Sky’s Lars-Petter Nordhaug had featured in both those moves, but the peloton was back together with 27km remaining, only for the decisive break to emerge just five kilometres further down the road.
Duarte, Rubiano and Rabottini were all present in that, and worked productively with Giovanni Visconti (Movistar), Francesco Failli (Farnese Vini) andPatrik Sinkewitz (Meridiana Kamen) to build an unassailable lead heading onto the final climb of the day.
That was where Duarte made the most of his punchy, explosive style before battling on to seal his second victory of the season.
