Caruso wins Milano-Torino

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Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha) won the Milan-Turin one-day race in Italy with a late burst of speed on the uphill finish to the Superga Basilica, using his excellent end of season form to get the better of fellow Italian Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r-La Mondiale). Katusha teammate Dan Moreno finished third, with Joaquim Rodriguez fifth and Sergei Chernetckii seventh for the Russian squad.

Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Fabio Aru (Astana) were expected to fight for victory on the climb on the hill overlooking Turin but Caruso and Nocentini got away in the final two kilometres and held off the chase from a select group of riders. Aru finished fourth, ahead of Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) while Contador was sixth.

Caruso is on form after riding the Vuelta a Espana and was part of the Italian team for the world championships. He is expected to work with Rodriguez during Sunday's Il Lombardia as the Spaniard tries to win the final Classics of the season for a third consecutive time.

Surprisingly, Milan-Turin was Caruso first victory since taking the overall classification at the now defunct Brixia Tour back in 2009. He finished fourth at Liege-Bastogne-Liege but has often struggled with injury and serious crashes.

A warm-up for Il Lombardia

Milan-Turin is considered the warm-up race for Sunday's Il Lombardia and so attracts 10 World Tour teams and a strong field, with the uphill finish on the famous Superga climb revealing who is on form at the end of the season.

The race started in the Milan suburb of Settimo Milanese after a brief protest by local residents against the construction of a energy incinerator. The route towards Turin is mostly flat and so it was difficult for a break to form and stay away. A quartet eventually got a gap after an intense 42km of racing, with Jerome Pineau (IAM Cycling), Lorenzo Rota (MG KVis Wilier), Nicola Dal Santo (Nankang Fondriest) and Gianluca Leonardi (Area Zero) in the move.

They quickly opened a five-minute gap before the peloton began to control their lead, with Astana sprinter Jacopo Guarnieri doing much of the work on the front. Saxo-Tinkoff also joined the chase and so the gap fell to 2:20 after 130km of racing. It was just 1:30 with 35km to go to the foot of the first passage of the five-kilometre Superga climb.

Pineau was the last of the break to be caught, with 50 riders going clear on the twisting but constant climb Dario Cataldo (Team Sky) made a move on the day his transfer to Astana was confirmed, with Julian Arredondo (Trek), Alberto Losada (Katusha) and Diego Rosa (Androni Venezuela) joining him. However the peloton responded and Cataldo sat up, with only Rosa going down the fast descent alone. Fabio Felline (Trek Factory Racing) linked up with Rosa briefly but Tinkoff-Saxo was leading the chase on the descent and the race came back together as the climb to the finish began with five kilometres to go.

Katusha sent Sergei Chernetski away early, forcing the other teams to lead the chase. Then Caruso moved, followed by Nocentini and Frank Schleck (Trek Factory Racing). Nocentini teamed up with Caruso as Schleck faded and Astana and Tinkoff-Saxo tried to chase for Aru and Contador. However the pair up front opened a 15-second lead with just a kilometre to go and caught and dropped Chernetski.

As the line approached and the gradient eased, Caruso had a little more strength than Nocentini and was able to win with his arms spread in celebration. The Sicilian had waited since 2009 to taste victory and so celebrated in style.

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