Peter Sagan couldn't continue his glorious run in Sardegna on Sunday. The Slovakian Sensation ran into a superb Pavel Brutt, who took the win over an ever improving Emanuele Sella by two seconds following a late attack. Sagan followed a further three seconds distant, with Lampre-ISD's Francesco Gavazzi and Farnese Vini's Oscar Gatto rounding out the top five.
With his win, Brutt succeeds Italian National Champion, Giovanni Visconti, as the winner of the Classica Sarda.
The racing dawned dreary and wet. 102 riders took to the start of the UCI 1.1 ranked event, and only five kilometers later, 22 of them were gone, including most all of the favorites.
The long list of participants in the day long effort at the head of affairs: Daniel Oss, Peter Sagan, Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas), Paolo Tiralongo, Robert Kiserlovski (both Astana), Damiano Cunego, Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre-ISD), Matthew Busche, Ben King (RadioShack), Pavel Brutt, Alexander Porsev (Katusha), Rafa Chtioui (Acqua e Sapone), Brent Bookwalter, Chad Beyer (BMC), Emanuele Sella, Jonathan Monsalve, Alessandro De Marchi, Roberto Ferrari (all Androni), Constantino Zaballa (Miche), Geraint Thomas (Sky), Elijah Favilli, and Oscar Gatto (Farnese Vini).
Androni Giocattoli had the largest representation in the large break with four, while Liquigas ran second with three, but certainly had three of the big favorites in Nibali, Sagan, and Oss.
With a break of this firepower after a week like the riders in Sardegna have had, there was little doubting that this move was the one of the day. At the halfway point of the race, the break had nearly ten minutes in hand, and there was little doubting that the winner would come from one of the twenty two escapees.
The break's cooperation broke down as the race headed into its final 25 kilometers. The attacks began to go with Ferrari, Zaballa, and Favilli, all doing their parts to break apart the group. With ten kilometers to go, the lead group had been whittled down to a more seemly dozen: Nibali, Sagan (Liquigas), Kiserlovski (Astana), Cunego, Gavazzi (Lampre), Sella, Ferrari (Androni), Gatto, Favilli (Farnese Vini), Brutt (Katusha), Zaballa (Miche), and Thomas (Sky). The best riders were present, and so were the fast finishers. With so many fast finishing kicks present in the final elite twelve, the attacks kept coming.
Androni's Emanuele Sella gave it a big dig with eight kilometers remaining, but only got a fraction of a gap before being gobbled back. Sella gave it another go moments later, and this time got a gap. Behind, Cunego was active in the chase, which opened the door for a counterattack by Nibali. With the big players showing their hands, Russia's Pavel Brutt slammed his own hand down on the table and went straight across to Sella and blew his doors off in the sprint to take a great win with a perfectly timed, powerful move.
Sella came in two seconds after that, while the hero of the week in Sardegna, Peter Sagan, rounded out the podium.