Danny Pate enjoyed a strong late-season ride at GP Bruno Beghelli but saw his late breakaway reeled in with one lap to go.

The American finished his season on the front foot after making his way into a sizeable group on the Italian finishing circuit.

Team Sky team-mate Xabier Zandio was also in the mix, but with the peloton bearing down and a number of riders unwilling to commit, things came back together before Nicki Sorenson made a late attack stick.

The opportunistic Dane (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) jumped on a decisive move from Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago-CSF) which saw an escape quintet form in the closing kilometres.

Sorensen was able to kick on and open up some daylight at the end of the tough 196.3-kilometre race to take his first win of the season in one of his final opportunities.

With the instigator of the move Pozzovivo resigned to fifth, Fabio Felline (Androni-Giocattoli) and Matteo Rabottini (Farnese Vini) produced the best kicks to round out the podium places in Monteveglio.

Italian ending

A tough finishing circuit had seen a tense finish as a breakaway attempted to hold off the surging peloton as the finish line approached.

After the race we caught up with Pate who, in his final race of the season, admitted: “We’re all happy the season is over but the team still rode pretty hard today.

“I was in the break until one lap to go and we got caught with half a lap to go. Xabi was then in the group and there was a small chance we could have stayed clear. It was a pretty big group but probably too big of a group as it didn’t work out well.

“There was some negative racing at the front with riders coming through and stopping. The peloton brought it back quite a bit before the last climb.”

Earlier 126 riders took to the start on Sunday morning in what was the last race of the season for the majority of the peloton.

Going clear

In contrast to Saturday’s Giro dell’Emilia where a sizeable early break were not allowed to go clear, Sunday saw 16 riders seize the opportunity to make tracks off the front.

With 40km in the books the group had a maximum advantage of 7:10, but as the race wore on the peloton sprung into action to cut the deficit.

As the race arrived at the 13.3km finishing circuit for the first time the margin had been slashed to 3:15, Team Nippo riding on the front into Monteveglio.

With each circuit featuring a climb of the tough Zappolino the breakaway soon became stretched, eventually splitting with six laps to go.

Two laps later a number of riders jumped out of the peloton and looked to bridge across to the group, Team Sky’s Danny Pate among them, the new group swelling to 18 as the race entered the business end.

But the peloton was always bearing down and the race came back together on the bell lap, the attackers and the Danish strongman taking the spoils.