Ben Swift (Team Sky) narrowly missed out on taking his first victory of 2014, placing second behind Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) in the Trofeo Ses Selines-Campos-Santanyi in Mallorca on Monday.
Swift was caught up towards the finish line with Gianna Meersman (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) but kept enough momentum to finish second, with Meersman third.
Sky and Lampre had earlier worked to pull back the escapes and a split in the peloton to create a bunch sprint finish.
The Mallorca Challenge continues on Tuesday with the third of four races, the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana.
Swift had a quiet 2013 season by his own high standards after a period recovering from complicated shoulder surgery.
“The shoulder is doing really well I am now four months post op and getting a lot of the movement and strength back,” Swift wrote on his blog. “There is still at lot of work to do as I got into some bad habits and bad movement patterns whilst I had the shoulder injury but it is going in the right direction and once I’ve eradicated these then I’m looking forward to getting it back to 100 per cent.”
Result
Trofeo Campos, 183km
1. Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre-Merida in 4-07-53
2. Ben Swift (GBr) Sky
3. Gianni Meersman (Bel) Omega Pharma-QuickStep
4. Matteo Trentin (Ita) Omega Pharma-QuickStep
5. Vicente Reynes (Spa) IAM Cycling
6. Michael Matthews (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge
7. Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma-QuickStep
8. Francisco Ventoso (Spa) Movistar
9. Tony Hurel (Fra) Europcar
10. Kristian Sbaragli (Ita) MTN-Qhubeka all same time
Sacha Modolo (Lampre Merida) on the podium after winning the 2014 Troefo Trofeo Ses Selines from Ben Swift (Team Sky) and Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-QuickStep)
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American Chris Horner makes 2014 season debut for Lampre-Merida at the Challenge Mallorca
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Ben Swift: Rider Profile
Ben Swift - rider profile, biog, cycling results, photos
