3 centimetres after 300kms

Team Columbia's sprinting sensation Mark Cavendish has snatched victory away from Cervelo Test Team's Heinrich Haussler with a last moment bike throw to win the 100th edition of the Milan-San Remo classic in sensational style.

The monumental win was one of firsts for the 23 year old Brit rider who was riding in his first Milan-San Remo and is the youngest rider with win the race since a young Belgian rider by the name of Eddy Merckx won the first of his seven Milan-SR wins in 1966.  The Aussie born rider turned German, Heinrich Haussler looked to have jumped the rest of the surviving riders in the last 100m and had several bike lengths advantage.  However, Cavendish was not going to give up easily and with a true champion effort, combined with his track racing skills, over-haulled Haussler to win by the smallest of margins. 

Cervelo Test Team rounded off a successful race with Norweigan sprint ace Thor Hushovd coming home in third place.  BikeKing's tip for an Aussie place, Alan Davis just missed a place on the podium to take a solid fourth place to confirm his reputation in the race (after his second place in 2007).  This year he was there to help "Tornado" Tom Boonen however Tom suffered over the infamous "Poggio" climb and came home in 15th place.

Of the rest of the Aussies, Robbie McEwen's pre-race confidence was not enough to get him to the line first and he came home in 67th place some 8.19 behind Cavendish.  Other Aussie finishers were Hatt Hayman (93rd), Mark Renshaw (96th), Wesley Sulzberger (99th) and Chris Sutton (140th).  Sadly Stuart O'Grady crashed out early after only 29kms.   Here's hoping that he is ok to defend his title at the Paris-Roubaix in three short weeks time.

Other bigs names like Alessandro Petachi (5th), Filippo Pozzato (22nd), Davide Rebellin (38th). Ivan Basso (44th) and Lance Armstrong (125th).