PORTO SANT'ELPIDIO, Italy – Peter Sagan sprinted through the rain to win the penultimate stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico, while Nairo Quintana retained the overall lead heading into the final day.
Sagan won a mass sprint to complete the victory in 5 hours, 4 minutes, 14 seconds in difficult conditions over the 210-kilometre route from Rieti to Porto Sant'Elpidio, the sixth stage of the race across central Italy.
The Slovak sprint specialist pumped his fists in the air as he crossed the line ahead of Gerald Ciolek and Jens Debusschere for his first victory for Tinkoff-Saxo, after two second-place finishes in this year's Tirreno.
Quintana tops the overall standings, retaining a 39-second advantage over Bauke Mollema and a 48-second lead over Rigoberto Uran.
Tuesday's final stage is a 10km individual time trial around San Benedetto del Tronto.
Sunday's stage was a tough one, with snow falling heavily on the difficult climb to Terminillo. There were several withdrawals before the start of Monday's stage and several more during the route as the rain continued to lash down on the riders, who also had to endure low temperatures.
Alessandro Vanotti, Stijn Devolder and Yukiya Arashiro broke clear after 15km and had a lead of nearly six minutes before the peloton started to reel them in.
The Tinkoff-Saxo team, which was riding for Sagan's bid for a stage win and Alberto Contador's faint hopes of retaining his Tirreno title, upped the pace on the ascent up to Montelparo - the sole categorized climb of the day - and cut the gap to 1:34.
The three leaders were caught with 51km remaining before Vanotti broke again and established a lead of 25 seconds as he approached Porto Sant'Elipidio before the two final laps of 14.4km.
Alexis Vuillermoz left the peloton and bridged the gap to Vanotti, with the two building a lead of 30 seconds. The Frenchman then left Vanotti alone but was reeled in with 3.2km to go as the teams set up their riders for the sprint finish.
Sagan opened his sprint at the same time as Ciolek and quickly opened up a lead of a bike length over the German cyclist. – Sapa-AP