Intro:

Peter Sagan wins the penultimate stage of the Tirreno Adriatico in driving rain.

Script:

The penultimate stage of the Tirreno Adriatico and it was wet, very wet. After Sunday's snow riders, including overall leader Nairo Quintana faced driving rain throughout this 210km stage. With less than 36 of those kilometres to go, Astana rider Alessandro Vanotti made a break... and that got him safely through this bottle neck where many of the peloton got into some difficulty. Alexis Vuillermoz then caught Vanotti and the Italian couldn't keep pace.

But with little over three kilometres to go the rest of the peloton chased down Vuillermoz.

Then the stage was set for those fans who braved the conditions for a spint finish. Britain's Mark Cavendish would have enjoyed this but he was nowhere near close enough to challenge. In the end it was Peter Sagan who came out on top, in a time of five hours, four minutes and 14 seconds.

This was the Slovakian's first win of the season and his first ever with new team Tinkoff-Saxo.