[3] The defending champion was Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha), who won the previous year's race in a sprint.

[3] The course was made more difficult again in 2008, with the addition of the climb of La Manie approximately 90 kilometres (56 miles) from the end of the race.

[12] The descent from the climb used narrow roads and hairpin bends; it required strong bike-handling skills.

[17] The defending champion, Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha), was foremost among these, as he had a particular aptitude for long races in cold conditions.

[19] Sagan was also believed to have a good chance of victory, since he was thought to have the ability and form to win the race from a breakaway as well as a bunch sprint.

[6] Although Cavendish was not in perfect form, his Etixx–Quick-Step had other riders capable of victory: Zdeněk Štybar and Michał Kwiatkowski, the 2014 world champion, had the potential to attempt an attack in the final part of the race.

Four riders formed a breakaway shortly after the beginning of the race: Jan Bárta (Bora–Argon 18), Juan Sebastián Molano (Colombia), Andrea Peron (Team Novo Nordisk) and Maarten Tjallingii (LottoNL–Jumbo).

They were joined shortly afterwards by Marco Frapporti, Tiziano Dall'Antonia (both Androni Giocattoli), Matteo Bono (Lampre–Merida), Serge Pauwels (MTN–Qhubeka), Adrian Kurek (CCC–Sprandi–Polkowice), Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani–CSF) and Julien Bérard (AG2R La Mondiale).

As the riders arrived on the Mediterranean coast, the weather conditions improved, with the rain stopping and the roads drying out.

Luke Rowe was leading the group, with Geraint Thomas, Ben Swift and Salvatore Puccio immediately behind.

Several riders bridged across to the Sky group, including Štybar and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team), while Orica–GreenEDGE kept up a fast pace in the peloton.

On the climb, Team Sky's Lars Petter Nordhaug and Trek Factory Racing's Julián Arredondo set the pace and caused difficulty for several of the sprinters, including Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha), Mark Cavendish (Etixx–Quick-Step) and Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis).

He had to put in significant effort to stay with the group on the Cipressa, which meant that he was unable to contest the later stages of the race.

After some hesitation, the lead was cut down by the pack behind, initially led by José Serpa (Lampre–Merida), then by riders from Trek Factory Racing and Astana.

Eventually, attacks came from Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team) and, more tellingly, his teammate Van Avermaet.

Thomas continued at the front of the group, bringing back another attack from Van Avermaet and attempting to lead out Swift, but he was exhausted from his earlier efforts in several breakaways.

Kristoff launched his sprint with 300 metres (980 ft) remaining, but was tired after a long day's racing and was unable to maintain his speed to the finishing line.

He attributed his win in part to the fact that he was not seen as a favourite, and he gave credit to his teammates Bert De Backer and Tom Dumoulin for their assistance during the race.

[32] Michael Matthews' third-place finish was the most significant result of his career, but he too was disappointed at having fallen short, after feeling strong on the climb of the Poggio.

[33] Thanks to the 100 points won in the race, Degenkolb moved into fourth place in the UCI World Tour rankings.