Cancellara and Freire on form

Back to Tirreno-Adriatico and Freire has the form to win a hill-climb sprint, whilst Cancellara has the power and fitness to recover from yesterday's TT win and hang with the sprinters (a bit like last year's TdF) and defend his lead on GC.

From CN:Luis Felipe Laverde (CSF Group Navigare) chased behind the trio at 10 seconds. He was caught by the Liquigas and LPR led gruppo, where Daniele Pietropolli and Paolo Savoldelli pushed the rhythm for 'The Killer.' Gasparotto fired his missile at 1300 metres remaining. The Italian, clad in the maglia ciclamino of points leader, was solo before Cancellara closed the door to protect his GC lead. Di Luca led through the last curve and 'Pippo' Pozzato was able to come around, but on the back of the two Italians was Oscar the Cat. The Spaniard used the last 25 metres to take victory and put his name at the top of the list of Sanremo favourites.

Other sprinters like McEwen and Cavendish were over 11 minutes back - obviously not targeting this hill-top sprint.