A brave attack from Geraint Thomas went unrewarded at the 2015 Milan-San Remo as his Team Sky colleague Ben Swift was the best-placed Brit in 13th.

Commonwealth Games champion Thomas led over the Poggio and despite a courageous attempt to hold off the peloton in the final ten kilometres he was eventually caught with John Degenkolb winning the bunch sprint to take a monument triumph.

A dropped chain scuppered Mark Cavendish’s hopes of adding to his 2009 win in the same race, crossing the line in 41st.

Thomas (31st), Simon Yates (37th), Luke Rowe (130th), Stephen Cummings (157th) and Alex Dowsett (158th) all completed the 293 kilometres.

Elsewhere, Matrix Fitness rider Molly Weaver took an excellent top-ten finish at the Cholet Pays de Loire Dames, the 21-year-old eighth in France.

Weaver was not the only young British cyclist to impress over the weekend as 17-year-old Alex Braybrooke was seventh in the Bernaudeau Junior race, also in France.