O'Grady in fine form

With all the talk of Boogerd, Boonen, Dekker and Hincapie, the 31-year-old South Australian seems happy to take a back seat and let his cycling do the talking.

Despite the overwhelming supremacy of the Fassa Bortolo team and sprint stallion Alessandro Petacchi in the Milan-San Remo, it was clear that Stuart O'Grady is in great shape and can be considered a threat for such races as the Ronde Van Vlaanderen, Paris-Roubaix and Amstel Gold.

What was particularly impressive about O'Grady's performance was the way in which he overcame the setback of finding himself isolated a blocked with less than a kilometre remaining, but nevertheless managed to extricate himself and surge forward at the end for a commendable fourth spot.

"Yeah... I was happy in a way, I guess," O'Grady announced in typically cagey fashion.

"I went there hoping for a better result and to pull off a win, and I really felt like I had the legs to do better, so I was probably a bit disappointed at the finish. But the sprint was pretty chaotic, and in the end, I'm pretty happy with a fourth place in a World Cup."