Italian flourishes on home soil to pick up first top 10 of the season.
Diego Ulissi seals breakaway win
Salvatore Puccio picked up his first top 10 of the 2014 season by finishing in eighth place at the one-day GP Camaiore in Italy.
Four men broke clear on the final climb of the race and managed to stay away until the finish, with Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) sprinting to victory ahead of Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r-La Mondiale) in second and Julian Arredondo (Trek Factory Racing) in third.
Puccio had formed part of a three-man group that set off in pursuit of the leaders on the descent to the line, and although that trio was swallowed back up by what was left of the peloton, the Italian still had the legs to cross the line fourth in the resulting bunch sprint, three seconds behind Ulissi.
The 186km race, which started and finished in the Tuscan coastal town of Camaiore, kicked off a spree of Italian races for Team Sky in the next two weeks.
After a flat opening section, the bulk of the action took place over five laps of a hilly 23.9km circuit, each including an ascent of the Salita di Monte Pitoro climb.
Hilly circuit
It took more than 50km for a breakaway to form, but after finally being allowed to move clear, Johnny Hoogerland (Androni Giocattoli), Daniele Colli (Yellow Fluo), Silvio Giorno (Area Zero) and Riccardo Donato (MG Kvis-Trevigiani) built up a gap of more than seven minutes.
Hoogerland and Colli dropped their two fellow escapees with just over 30km remaining as the gap began to tumble, but couldn't stay away and were caught at the foot of the final ascent of Monte Pitoro, about 14km from home.
Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) attacked early in the climb but couldn't sustain his advantage, while further attacks saw Ulissi, Arredondo and Montaguti take a narrow lead over the summit, 9km out.
Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge) later bridged across to form a front quartet, and they stretched the gap to around 20 seconds.
Puccio's group and the peloton failed to bring them back, and Ulissi capitalised to claim his second win of the season.
Cioni pleased
Sports director Dario Cioni told us afterwards: "It was a good performance from Salvatore. He enjoyed racing on these roads as an under-23 in Italy, so we said in the meeting before the race that if a group went on the last climb, he should try to be with them.
"Unluckily, the front four were just a little bit too strong, but he joined a group of three behind and kept himself in contention.
"What was left of the peloton came back to Salvatore's group, but he still had the legs to finish strongly.
"Unfortunately, Ben Swift couldn't make it over the last climb in the front group and couldn't get back to contest the finish, but it was still a good day for the team overall."
