Matthew Goss (HTC-Highroad) took victory in a thrilling edition of Milan-San Remo with an emphatic sprint finish on the Lungomare Italo Calvino. The 24-year-old Australian had time to savour his win over Fabian Cancellara (Leopard Trek) and Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) as he proved by far the quickest of the elite eight-man group that formed over the top of the Poggio.

While Goss’ rapid kick to the line will understandably grab the headlines, his stunning victory owed as much to his sangfroid in a frantic finale as it did to his pure speed in the finishing straight. As attack followed attack all the way from the summit of the Poggio down to the finish line in San Remo, Goss held his nerve and allowed the pre-race favourites to wear one another out in the streets of the Ligurian town.

“I really didn’t expect to win,” an emotional Goss said afterwards. “I just did what I needed to do. I managed to stay in front and even though I was without teammates, I managed myself well.”

An incident 2km from the line offered a perfect microcosm of Goss’ intelligent race: as Philippe Gilbert put in the fierce acceleration that marked his final throw of the dice for La Classicissima victory, it was Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) who led the chase, with Goss tucked comfortably on his wheel.

Indeed, time and again in the dramatic final 20km of racing, Goss found himself in the right place at the right time, an oasis of calm in the chaos that surrounded him, as he quietly covered the moves without expending the kind of energy that might blunt his finishing sprint.

“In the finale, I looked to hold onto the wheels on the Poggio, because I knew it would be the decisive moment,” Goss said.

The sprint itself was chaotic, and lacking in organisation, with just eight riders left in contention after a white-knuckle descent of the Poggio, but again Goss was able to pick his way through the disarray. He marked Gilbert in the finishing straight, and when the Omega Pharma-Lotto man dived to follow Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD), Goss simply ghosted off his right hand shoulder.

The only real competition came from Fabian Cancellara on the other side of the road, but Goss had enough sparkle in his legs to hold off the fast-finishing Swiss and take a surprising but richly-merited victory.

“I was here to win, the team rode really well and I tried to finish that off, but I didn’t succeed,” Cancellara said. “I even tried to go alone but everyone was on my wheel. In the end I did one of the best sprints of my life, but Goss was unbeatable.”

Van Avermaet’s brave bid

As ever, there was drama aplenty on the capi that punctuate the run-in to San Remo, but unlike in recent years, it was more than a mere sideshow to the inevitable sprint finish. With the peloton already split by a crash before the climb of Le Manie 90km from the line, and with sprint favourites of the calibre of Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervélo), Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervélo), Oscar Freire (Rabobank) and Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) chasing behind, the non-sprinters in front knew that they would never have a better chance of upsetting the odds.

The BMC and Omega Pharma-Lotto teams drove the 44-man leading group as it hit the Capo Mele with 52km to go, as they sought to hammer home their two-minute advantage over the Hushovd-Freire group behind. While those two squads were pulling in support of Alessandro Ballan and Philippe Gilbert, they were all too aware of the presence of fast men Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Cervélo), Tom Boonen (Quick Step) and Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) in the group, and the secondary objective was to force the pace on the climbs in a bid to dislodge them.

Boonen betrayed obvious signs of suffering on the Capo Berta, while Petacchi was clearly not hopeful of victory – his own Lampre-ISD team were leading the chase behind in support of Michele Scarponi.

Thanks to that impetus, the gap was down to one minute on the penultimate climb of the Cipressa, and it was here that Scarponi struck, streaking clear of the chase group in a bold bid to bridge to the leaders. Remarkably, the Italian would do just that, catching hold of the coattails of the front group after the descent of the Cipressa, and then play a forceful role in the combustible finale.

Meanwhile, on the Cipressa, Alessandro Ballan had put in his first tentative dig, which saw Yoann Offredo (FDJ) and Gilbert respond. Yaroslav Popovych (RadioShack) was next to try his luck, and he led over the Cipressa before being caught at the top of the descent.

Indeed, it was on the way down that the real damage was done, and the most dangerous move of the closing stages took shape. The FDJ tandem of Steve Chainel and Offredo surged clear in what was surely a premeditated attack, and they brought Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) and the wily Stuart O’Grady (Leopard Trek) with them.

The quartet worked seamlessly together, quickly opening a 30-second lead. Chainel was burying himself in the service of the stylish Offredo, while the favourites hesitated behind and ultimately the chase fell to Omega Pharma-Lotto, with André Greipel sacrificing himself for Gilbert.

Those efforts would ultimately play against Gilbert’s chances. “When those four went clear, everybody expected our team to do the work, and that cost us dearly,” he said at the finish.

At the foot of the Poggio, 10km from home, the gap was still stable, but the break’s unity was fractured on the climb. Van Avermaet forced his way clear of the break two kilometres from the top, cleverly attacking as Offredo was caught on O’Grady’s wheel, while Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) opened the hostilities behind.

The Sicilian launched two accelerations: on the first one, he had Gilbert and Ballan for company, but the second time around, he simply cruised clear and made it across to Offredo and O’Grady, dragging them towards the summit. Up ahead, Van Avermaet was still holding tough, and had a 12-second lead at the top, but further down the climb, the remnants of the 44-man split were scattered all over the Poggio, with Haussler, Petacchi and Boonen all bidding farewell to their dreams of victory.

Gilbert, Cancellara, Goss, Pozzato, Ballan and Scarponi managed to bridge to Nibali and Offredo over the top of the Poggio, while Van Avermaet continued to plough a lone furrow in the lead. The plucky Belgian looked to have a winning margin as he began the descent, but then Cancellara simply took matters into his own hands.

The Swiss rider made mincemeat of Van Avermaet’s advantage and dragged the chasers back into contention, with the race coming back together by the time the road flattened out in the streets of San Remo. Even at this point, Offredo, Gilbert and Nibali refused to give up the ghost as they attacked in turn, but ultimately their efforts served only to lead out the sprint, where the canny Goss had too much in reserve for a clearly disappointed Cancellara.

Early drama on Le Manie

Long before the tense closing 20km, there was an emotional beginning to Milan-San Remo. Japanese champion Takashi Miyazawa (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli) was the centre of attention at the sign on in the shadow of the imposing Castello Sforzesco, as the peloton paid their respects to the victims of the recent earthquake in Japan. Shortly afterwards, once the bunch had rolled out of Milan in pleasant spring conditions, Miyazawa was off the front looking to pay a tribute of his own.

He attacked 12km into the race with the classy Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha), Alessandro De Marchi (Androni Giocattoli) and Nico Sijmens (Cofidis) for company. Once they went clear, the peloton settled down to a steady pace behind, as the race took on its natural rhythm, ticking off the familiar towns on the well-worn road through Lombardy, Piedmont and Liguria to San Remo.

By Voghera (60km), they had a lead of 12:30, which then stabilised around the ten-minute mark for the next hour or so, as the quartet left the northern Italian plain behind and headed for the rugged terrain near the coast.

After tackling the Passo Turchino, La Primavera’s first major test, the gap between the peloton and the break began to tumble accordingly. By the time they reached Le Manie, with 90km to race, their lead was under two minutes and the break would fragment on the slopes of the climb, as Ignatiev and De Marchi forged clear.

However, the real drama was to come behind. A crash in the peloton just before the start of Le Manie saw world champion Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervélo) take a tumble and get caught behind. The touch paper was lit as news of the Norwegian’s misfortune spread through the bunch, and when Oscar Freire (Rabobank) came a cropper on the subsequent descent, the pace rocketed still higher at the head of the peloton.

Omega Pharma-Lotto and BMC grabbed a hold of the race and dragged an elite 44-man group clear off the descent of Le Manie, while there was chaos behind as the bunch split into four separate groups. In the confused moments that followed while Hushovd, Freire, Farrar and Mark Cavendish sought to organise themselves and the chase behind, the lead group managed to stretch out a two-minute lead and the dynamic of the race was altered completely.

A number of pre-race favourites were all but eliminated from contention here, but their absence from the front end in the finale did nothing to detract from what was a gripping race. But ironically, while Gilbert, Nibali and company happily combined to rid themselves of the sprinters over the next 90km, their efforts would ultimately set up the race to perfection for one of the fastest men in the bunch.

Like so many others, Matthew Goss has lived in the shadow of his leader Mark Cavendish’s sprint dominance in recent times, but after this fine victory on the Riviera, the Australian has heralded his own definitive arrival at sprinting’s top table.

Stage three of Paris-Nice was doubly special for Matt Goss (HTC-Highroad) as he won his first career stage in Paris-Nice and with the time bonus took over the general classification lead. The 24-year-old Tasmanian outkicked Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Cervelo) and Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha) in a chaotic field sprint into Nuits-Saint-Georges which saw Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) crash moments after the last turn onto the finishing straight.

Goss said it had been a tough final sprint, which saw him dart from one side of the road to the other to avoid the fallen riders and then go for the win at the end of a hilly 202km stage.

“It was certainly difficult, I was a little bit too far back in the last corner and was lucky to get round the crash, but once I got past them I had a straight run and it went well,” said Goss. “I was very motivated for today’s stage, I knew if I could get over the final five-kilometre climb I’d be in with a good shot, the finish was perfect for me.

“We just missed out on the first sprint on stage one, the second one I was a little bit boxed in, but today it worked out fine.”

“It was a very scrappy finish, but they seem to suit Matt, he surfs the other teams lead-outs and then goes for it himself,” added HTC-Highroad’s sports director Allan Peiper, “He just missed out yesterday (Monday), but today he really put the score straight.”

Goss assumed the race lead from Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM), wearer of the yellow jersey since his stage win on the opening stage, by two seconds. Haussler moves into third overall, six seconds off the pace.

“Tomorrow’s a tough stage to defend the lead, but it’s not impossible,” said Goss, who also leads the best young rider classification. “There are two climbs about 50 kilometers from the finish, so hopefully I can get over them ok and at least hold it for another day.

“It’s been a perfect start to the year. I can only hope it keeps going for as long as possible.”

From the gun

The break of the day formed immediately as stage three began with an attack by Cédric Pineau (FDJ). He was joined by Blel Kadri (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Jussi Veikkanen (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and Romain Hardy (Bretagne-Schuller) and the quintet quickly built up a lead over the momentarily complacent peloton.

Only 5km into the stage the escapees’ lead stood at two minutes and by the 50km mark the quintet had stretched their advantage to 4:35, at which point Vacansoleil-DCM, the team of race leader Thomas De Gendt, upped the pace in the peloton to hold the break in check.

At the first sprint line of the stage in Cervon at 74.5km, won by Pineau over Gautier and Hardy, their lead had dropped slightly to 3:50 and as the race approached the 100km mark the quintet’s lead was reduced to 2:15. Perhaps not wanting to make the catch too soon, the chase effort in the peloton eased slightly and the break’s lead once again stretched back to 3:45 with 75km remaining.

The stage’s second sprint line, in Essey at 156km, was taken by Gautier and the five escapees still remained off the front at the foot of the day’s only KOM, albeit with a lead of only one minute due to the pacemaking efforts of Vacansoleil-DCM’s Stijn Devolder and Sergey Lagutin.

Veikkanen attacked his break companions on the 5km ascent to the KOM line of the category 2 Côte de Bécoup to take maximum points and the lead in the mountains classification. The break regrouped after the summit, but were soon caught by the peloton after enjoying approximately 180km of freedom for the day.

Moments after the catch was made French champion Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) attacked on a short uphill drag and an attentive Kadri latched onto his wheel. The duo jumped out to a 20-second lead but the teams of the sprinters, particularly Garmin-Cervelo, Liquigas-Cannondale, Sky and Katusha, neutralised their escape with 5km remaining.

The peloton had to negotiate several bends in the closing kilometres and as they made the final left-hand turn onto the finishing straight with 300m remaining, Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) crashed near the head of the peloton. Several riders went down when they plowed into Sagan, but Goss avoided the crash and powered to the finish line to take his seventh win of the season and the Paris-Nice leader’s yellow jersey.

Matt Goss (HTC-Highroad) took the race leader’s red jersey at the Tour of Oman on Wednesday after making it into the decisive split on stage two and then winning the sprint in Al Wutayya with an impressive show of speed.

The Australian beat Daniele Bennati (Leopard Trek) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) on the slightly rising finish after 72 riders formed a front group following the short but steep climb mid-way through the 139.5km stage. Race organiser Eddy Merckx had predicted the climb would cause some problems and he was right. The peloton snapped into several groups on the climb and then the 60km to the finish became a pursuit match between the chase groups.

Stage one winner and race leader Theo Bos (Rabobank) was unable to get back up to the front group despite a concerted pursuit by his teammates and he finished 10:34 behind. With him were world champion Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervelo), Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad), Tom Boonen (Quick Step) and most of the other sprinters.

A crash near the final turn affected the likes of Heinrich Haussler but Goss clearly has newfound confidence in his sprinting ability and won it well, leaving Bennati to reflect on yet another placing and leaving Leopard Trek still chasing their first-ever win.

Thanks to the time bonuses, Goss leads Bennati by four seconds, with Boasson Hagen at six seconds. Danilo Hondo (Lampre-ISD) is fourth overall at 10 seconds and Luca Paolini (Katusha) is fifth in the same time.

Goss on form

Goss was on great form in January when he won a stage at the Tour Down Under and finished a close second overall behind Cameron Meyer. He hasn’t raced since then but quickly found his legs and proved he can climb and then win sprints.

“It was a tough day. The climb was really quite tough and the finish was difficult and slightly uphill too. But it’s nice to get another one,” Goss said just after crossing the finish line.

“I didn’t know how I was going to be. I had a bit of time off and I’d just been training but it doesn’t take long for the speed to come back in the legs.”

The 24-year-old Tasmanian explained that the riders were surprised by the steepness of the short climb. He described it as similar to Willunga Hill that often decides the Tour Down Under, but said it was twice as long.

The climb quickly shook out the 127-rider peloton, forming three groups on the road after a very descent. The early break of five riders, that included Mark Cassidy (An Post Sean Kelly), was swept up as the race exploded into life.

At one stage Boonen and Cavendish were in the second group but they were unable to catch the front group of 72 riders that surged clear. Race leader Theo Bos was one of the first to be dropped on the climb and he was in a third group but even the hard work of almost all the Rabobank team could not close the gap and bring the big-name sprinters back in contention.

“BMC were riding quite hard on the climb and Garmin too,” Goss said.

“It was a tough climb and the guys were pushing the pace. After that it was a combination of a lot of teams riding hard. Leopard Trek rode, Sky rode and we did a bit too. We had one guy working and the others were keeping me out of the wind and then they did a perfect job coming into the finish.”

Overall contender shake out

The climb and subsequent shake out in the peloton gave the first indication of who will go on to be an overall contender for overall victory on the uphill finish on stage four and the equally important stage five 18.5km time trial.

Goss is expected to crack on the 5.8km climb to the finish on Green Mountain, meaning Boasson Hagen is now the best placed overall contender as he gained four bonus seconds for third place.

Those precious seconds could be the difference between overall success and a place on the podium but Boasson Hagen is still optimistic after producing a good ride on only his second day of the 2011 season.

“Yesterday I started my sprint a little late and today it was a little early but I’m getting there,” he told Cyclingnews. “I’m in a good position now and I’ve gained a few seconds. We’ll take it day by day and hope it goes well.”

The decisive uphill finish to Green Mountain is on Friday. Before that the riders face the longest stage of the race, a 208km loop that starts and finishes in the southern town of Sur.

The riders travel to the start by speed boat but will still have to leave their hotel at eight in the morning. They then face a 250km drive back to their hotel near Muscat, making for a long day of riding and traveling.

Matt Goss showed that his win in Sunday’s Cancer Council Classic was no ‘slip of the leadership’ for HTC-Highroad but a concerted move to give the Tasmanian a shot at the Tour Down Under title, his win in Angaston today demonstrating he’ll be one of the men to beat in the battle for the ochre jersey this week.

Goss outsprinted former teammate André Greipel (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and fellow Australian Robbie McEwen (RadioShack) at the end of the 138km journey from Mawson Lakes to the heart of the Barossa Valley to secure the overall lead after an opening day that quelled speculation whether Mark Cavendish could be HTC-Highroad’s protected rider.

“I saw Greipel behind me just as I strated to sprint but I wasn’t paying too much attention to that as I was just doing my own race so it worked out well,” said Goss afterwards.

“It’s one thing to win but when you’re expected to win there’s a lot more pressure on yourself. I’m really happy to get the win today for both me and the team, the rode all day. That’s for them.”

And it was Goss’ team that demonstrated it was one of the strongest – if not the strongest – squad out there all day. The first overall leader of this year’s Santos Tour Down Under said that he may have had a few doubts about their ability to finish off the good work heading into the finale, however.

“I kinda had my worries. Renshaw did a great job and he got me to about 250m to go but it was slightly uphill and it was a tough finish but I managed to hold up until the end,” said Goss. “Cav was on my wheel as we were starting to sprint but to be honest I don’t have eyes in the back of my head so I couldn’t see where I was.

“We had a plan at the start of the day and that plan was that Cav was going to be on my wheel and we’d see what happened. If I could win I’d take it and if he could come past he’d come past. If he finished second he could and put more of a gap between us and the other riders in the GC so we had all bases covered, I think.”

Band of Five play out time

The day was punctuated by a break of five riders, as Simon Clarke (Astana), Mathieu Perget (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Mitchell Docker (UniSA-Australia), Miguel Minguez and Jon Izaguirre (both Euskaltel-Euskadi) got away following the KOM on Black Top Road and spent most of the day off the front of the field, with Clarke netting the most aggressive rider prize for his efforts.

He was the last to succumb to the peloton’s clutches in the final 20km, as the likes of HTC-Highroad, Team Sky, Garmin-Cervélo and Omega Pharma-Lotto came to the fore in an effort to deliver their men to the pointy end of the stage in the perfect position.

And it was Allan Peiper’s men who achieved that best, as much like Sunday evening’s criterium in Adelaide’s east end, Mark Renshaw was the man to guide his team’s push for the line over the closing kilometres.

“It was a bit of a drag race between us and Sky with a kilometre to go. As always, Renshaw did a perfect job although he had to go a lot earlier than what he would usually do and he just wound it up perfectly. I probably got the front a little bit early too but I managed to hold on so I’m happy,” explained Goss.

As for the plight of Team Sky’s riders, Greg Henderson admitted to suffering the effects of a crash in the finale of Sunday’s Cancer Council Criterium while the squad’s best-placed man was Chris Sutton in fourth. There was an element of confusion after Michael Rogers suffered a mechanical late in the stage and it didn’t get any better after that point.

“I wasn’t feeling 100 percent today,” said Henderson. “I think all the bruising from my crash on Sunday night is starting to come out. I was so sore today and it was uncomfortable all day.

“We lost each other at one kilometre to go – the whole train sort of derailed. When G [Gerrans] went, it was at the right time for him but there was only me left. I had to try and fight my way into the line somewhere, it left me out in the wind.

“When the sprint starts you are already full of lactic acid and I couldn’t even go. It wasn’t ideal but it’s what happens,” he continued, adding that he’s not ruling himself out of contention for overall honours.

“That crash the other night really took the edge off me but as the week progresses I think I will get better and better – once all this bruising comes out. Hopefully.”

HTC-Highroad demonstrated that while the two Marks – Renshaw and Cavendish – may be the squad’s headline act in July, the Australian can lead out any one of the team capable of winning a sprint. And today, in the Cancer Council Helpline Classic, that man was Matt Goss.

The Tasmanian benefited from Greg Henderson’s misfortune in the final corner and powered to the line ahead of Renshaw, Robbie McEwen (RadioShack) and Elia Viviani (Liquigas-Cannondale), who formed a four-man group in the final 500m due to the kiwi’s crash.

Goss has been riding well recently, taking out the Jayco Bay Cycling Classic earlier this month and was pleased with the performance. “It’s a great start and I’m very happy. Great for me, great for the team and a great start to the Tour Down Under,” he said immediately after the win.

“We had it under control we kept the break at a reasonable distance. Our team and Omega Pharma-Lotto did a great to control the race and we were lucky to finish it of. We’ve got enough power (at HTC) to turn the earth off its axis.”

That power consisted of riders such as Bernhard Eisel, Bert Grabsch, Danny Pate and Renshaw, whilst Mark Cavendish waited in the wings for a chance to hit out against some of the in-form fast men at the start of 2011.

And as Goss noted, André Greipel’s Omega Pharma-Lotto squad did the lion’s share of the work during the 51km race, taking control of proceedings and ensuring a five-man break – which became a leading trio with about 15 laps remaining – wouldn’t succeed in its quest to steal the sprinters’ thunder.

That escape group contained Gorka Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi), talented local Luke Durbridge (UniSA-Australia), Martin Mortensen (Leopard Trek), Markel Irizar (RadioShack) and Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Katusha), which got away during the second lap and maintained a solid advantage of 30 seconds for most of the event.

With the aforementioned loss of Mortensen and Izagirre later in the race it was time for the sprinters’ teams to step up and they did, taking charge after the remnants of the break were swept up with five laps remaining. First it was Greipel’s squad leading the way, then Allan Davis’ Astana crew before Team Sky came to the fore en masse.

Heading into the last lap the combined strength of Team Sky flexed its muscle as the likes of Matthew Hayman, Ben Swift, Simon Gerrans, CJ Sutton and Geraint Thomas worked hard to get their man Henderson to the line in a style reminiscent of its debut appearance at the event last season. On that occasion it was a quinella, although this year’s result would be vastly different given Henderson’s misfortune.

“It was same scenario as last year – we wanted to wait a little longer but when the opportunity arose… You go into a race with a plan but you have to think on your feet. We made the call and we had to go – everyone did their bit but you don’t always win,” said Hayman afterwards.

“Hendy was behind CJ [coming into the final corner], I believe, when he went down. Maybe I went through there a bit too hot – I wanted to keep the speed because I’d already done a fairly long turn and I figured if I hit the brakes too much it was going to hurt me coming out of the corner so I wanted to hit it really hard.

Henderson avoided serious injury in the accident and will only be missing some skin off his legs when the first stage of the Santos Tour Down Under starts on Tuesday.