Rigoberto Urán claimed an impressive podium spot at the Il Lombardia in Italy, with Sergio Henao finishing fifth.

The Colombian pair had driven a chasing group of six riders which began to swell in number in the closing kilometres on soaking wet roads into Lecco.

The pair were forced into action after Joaquim Rodriguez launched a stinging attack on the final climb, the Katusha rider holding on to take a solo victory at the final 'Monument' of the season.

Rodriguez became the first-ever Spaniard to win the event, holding off the chasing pack by nine seconds to secure the number one spot in the UCI WorldTour Rankings at the expense of Bradley Wiggins.

Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) arrived late in an elite chase group to claim second ahead of Urán, with Mauro Santambrogio (BMC Racing) and Henao rounding out the top five after over six and a half hours of racing.

Lars-Petter Nordhaug bounced back from illness to also put in a strong ride for the team, the Norwegian helping to string things out on the approach to the finale.

Absent from the results was pre-race favourite Philippe Gilbert, the newly-crowned world champion (BMC Racing) having crashed on the descent off the infamous Muro di Sormano which forced him to abandon.

Monument

As forecasted it was bad weather that greeted the riders as the peloton rolled out of Bergamo on Saturday ahead of 251 kilometres of racing.

An initial group of 10 riders made tracks early on, the first climb over the Valico di Valcava splitting things up briefly as the weather closed in further.

Team Sky took up the gauntlet and chased early before BMC Racing finally looked to set things up for Gilbert ahead of the Surmano.

The big names quickly arrived at the front with Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Canondale) among those forcing a selection on the brutally-steep ramps, the breakaway being swept up with over 80km remaining, save for the plucky Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale).

The Surmano - returning after a 50-year absence - looked as though it would completely change the complexion of the race as the peloton blew to pieces ahead of the summit.

A general regrouping on the treacherous descent saw an elite selection of around 30 riders chasing Bardet, but the technical terrain spelt the end of the race for Gilbert, who crashed alongside team-mate Alessandro Ballan and Luca Paolini (Katusha).

Kevin De Weert was the next to try and forge clear on his own, the Omega Pharma – Quick-Step rider finding himself clear by 43 seconds over the top of the famous Madonna del Ghisallo.

A brief spate of crashes on the glass-like roads saw the Belgian’s lead brought back, De Weert going down along with Nibali, Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) and Paolo Tiralongo (Astana).

The race ultimately came down to the final climb and Rodriguez again proved his strength to win an epic race in style.

Consistently strong

After the stage Sports Director Sean Yates heaped praise on the Colombian pairing as the team finished strongly in one of the toughest tests of the season.

He said: “It was a good ride from those two to be in contention with the world’s best on a really tough day. It confirmed once again that they have the pedigree to be up there in the mix. Once Rodriguez took off there was no stopping him and after that it was game on for second place.

“The boys rode well. They got caught in a split initially at the start of the race so Danny had to do a lot of work. Puccio was there for a long time and Lars-Petter did a great job throughout the race and to regain contact with the lead group towards the end.

“It was really hard with the new climb of the Muro di Sormano. It was nice to see that Sergio was given the new fastest time up there. 9:20 is a bit of history which is nice. We also look like we are on the way to wrapping up the WorldTour which is great for the team.

“Rodriguez edged out Bradley for his WorldTour win. But he’s merited that and ridden really well throughout the year.”