Michal Kwiatkowski won the Strade Bianche race in Italy.
Mark Cavendish and Peter Sagan were amongst the starters for this 188km race from Gaoile in Chianti to Siena but they were not among the four who escaped and took a lead of eleven minutes.
With 95kms to go, Marco Frapporti (Androni Giocattoli), Marco Canola (Baridani CSF), Davide Frattini (UnitedHealthCare) and Andrea Fedi (Neri Sottoli-Yellow Fluo), had a seven minute lead as Pozzato ,Reijnen, Pantoja Tobar, Russem and Belkob abandoned.
On section six of dirt roads, the gap started to really drop and their lead was three minutes with 55kms remaining.
Team Sky's Ian Stannard was on the front of the peloton for section seven which comprised of the longest sector of the race at 11.5km.
With their lead only a minute, Pagini left the thirty or so riders in the front peloton, passed the escapers and went clear.
Rosa joined him on the front before crashing, something which also happened to Pagini when he took a corner and his back wheel slipped out. He was straight back up with a 47 second lead which had dropped to 28 seconds with 47 kilometres to go.
A new lead group featuring Peter Sagan (Cannondale), Franco Pellizotti (Androni Venezuela), Damiano Cunego & Diego Ulissi (Lampre Merida), Michal Golas, Michal Kwiatkowski, Wout Poels, Matteo Trentin and Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma Quick Step), Warren Barguil, Tom Dumoulin, Simon Geshcke and Georg Preidler (Giant Shimano), Angel Vicioso (Katusha), Salvatore Puccio and Ian Stannard (Sky), Daniele Bennati, Christopher Juul Jensen, Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff Saxo), Fabian Cancellara (Trek), Angelo Pagani (Bardiani), Alejandro Valverde and Andrei Amador (Movistar) controlled matters on the front.
Matteo Trentin attacked followed by Cadel Evans but the second group was catching and with 22kms remaining, the bridge was made. Away went Peter Sagan of Cannondale.
The Slovakian was followed by Michal Kwiatkowski of Omega Pharma Quick Step. The pair now worked together, at a pace which too much for the chasers and with an explosive attack on the top of the final climb in Siena, Michael Kwaitkowski went away and took the win in 5.20.33 ahead of Sagan, Valverde, Cunego, Kreuziger, Cancellara, Evans, Barguil and Poels.
"I knew the climb pretty well and the team was so good. i cannot describe how I feel after winning this. Everything is going well and I am really, really happy, " Kwiatkowski said to Dan Lloyd.
Ian Stannard of Team Sky finished sixteenth, Ben Swift of Team Sky was 53rd, Nicholas Roche of Tinkoff Saxo was 54th.
Mark Cavendish was amongst those who did not finish