Unmarked street furniture takes out Sam Bennett at Milan-Sanremo | Video | Sticky Bottle

*Sam Bennett was taken out, quite badly, but the good news, if you could call it that, was that he was sitting up after a while and moving about so hopefully he is OK*

Sam Bennett's hopes of making it over the Poggio to compete in the sprint for victory at Milan-Sanremo ended over 30km from the finish today when the Irishman was the victim of a bad crash.

The Bora-hansgrohe rider was among four or five riders to crash with 34km to go, with unmarked and unprotected street furniture on the roadside taking out the riders.

While pro riders are normally straight back on their bikes and trying to get back into the race after a crash, the victims of this incident stayed on the road and looked quite dazed. However, after a few moments they all seemed to be sitting up and moving about so hopefully they are OK.