Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) wins 2017 Milan San Remo, Italy Road.

Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) won an excruciatingly close photo-finish sprint on the Via Roma in Milan-San Remo, topping world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), with Julian Alaphilippe (QuickStep) in third. "After previous editions in 2013 and 2014 when I've been unlucky, winning Milano-San Remo is an incredible feeling," Kwiatkowski said. "I'm thankful to my teammates, they did an incredible job today. I didn't expect Sagan to attack on the Poggio. After he did, I expected a bunch sprint but he maintained a high speed at the front. I focused only on my own sprint. I can't believe I've beaten Sagan. Sagan sparked the breakaway over the top of the Poggio, and was quickly joined by Kwiatkowski and Alaphilippe, two daring descenders who could keep up with the world champion's legendary skills. Leading the entire descent, Sagan looked to his companions to take a pull, but they only briefly obliged, leaving Sagan to do the majority of the work to hold off the hard-charging peloton. As they took the final curve and had the finish line in sight, the peloton came into view behind them, but they had left it too late.

 Sagan wiggled his elbow for Kwiatkowski to pull through with 500m to go, but the Pole wisely declined, and as Sagan charged hard for the finish line, Kwiatkowski drew alongside. Sagan violently strangled his bicycle trying to squeeze out just a few more watts, but the Sky rider threw his bike to the line, snatching the elusive Milan-San Remo victory from the Bora-hansgrohe rider. Alaphilippe finished narrowly behind for third place, and the peloton crossed the line only five seconds later.