Goss' win thrusts him into frame for classic Sound start: Matt Goss takes winning form into next week's Milan-San Remo classic. Matt Goss will wear one of the "favourite" tags in the Milan-San Remo one-day classic in Italy next weekend after claiming his first victory of the year on Thursday. The win by Goss (Orica-GreenEDGE) came in stage two of the Tirreno-Adriatico race in Italy and in a bunch sprint that included British star Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep). And in an added boost for the Australian Orica-GreenEDGE team, Goss' success came half an hour after Swiss teammate Michael Albasini won stage four of the Paris-Nice race in France. For Goss, his win in the 232-kilometre leg from San Vincenzo to Indicatore was his first since he took out stage three of last year's Giro d'Italia. It was also his team's ninth win for the season. In second and third to Goss were Italian Manuel Belletti (AG2R La Mondiale) and German Gerald Ciolek (MTN-Qhubeka). Other noted places were Cavendish in fifth, Italian Roberto Ferrari (Lampre-Merida) fourth, German Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) seventh, Slovakian Peter Sagan (Cannondale) ninth and Italian Davide Appollonio (AG2R La Mondiale) 10th. "This is the first road stage I've done in Europe this year," Goss said. To come away with the win is great. It's huge for my motivation and confidence, and it's hopefully great for the team as well. With the win also in Paris-Nice today, we're all on a bit of a high at the moment. Whatever happens in the Tirreno-Adriatico that finishes on Tuesday, Goss will head into next Sunday's 298km Milan-San Remo - the first of cycling's five one-day "monuments" - as one of the main contenders. Adding weight to his favouritism is that he is a former winner. The past two Milan-San Remos have been won by Australians - in 2011 by Goss and last year by Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE), who is preparing for it in the Paris-Nice race that finishes on Sunday. Goss will be his team's main card for Milan-San Remo should it finish in a field sprint, whereas Gerrans will be the ace should an attacking opportunity arise near the end. Whoever the eight Orica-GreenEDGE riders are in the Milan-San Remo, their morale will be high. Strengthening their confidence, too, will be that they are a team becoming tactically smarter, as shown by how they raced in Tirreno-Adriatico before Goss won his sprint. In what was the longest stage of the race, the team did not fall in to the trap of doing too much work too early, as a team not sure of itself but excited to play a dominant role may have done. That approach will be needed in Milan-San Remo - at 298km, the longest of five monuments. In a pre-race meeting on Thursday, Orica-GreenEDGE sport director Neil Stephens said he told the team: "While 'Gossy' is in good shape, we weren't going to assume the role as a team with a top sprinter. We didn't go great [on stage one]. We didn't have the [overall] lead. Gossy hadn't won a bike race yet this year. I wanted to downplay our chances to our competitors and the media. We didn't put the pressure on, but of course, if we were in the hunt, we'd ride for Gossy. It was only when a four-man break was caught about 30km to go, that Orica-GreenEDGE began to get to work with their positioning in readiness to lead-out Goss in the sprint finish. And for that Orica-GreenEDGE had a plan. "We had specific markers," Goss said. We wanted to come to the front at 1.8 kilometres before we went over an overpass. After the overpass, there was a right-hand turn. It was the last corner at one kilometre to go. We knew if we weren't in the top 10 around that corner, we'd have no chance to win. Even better that Orica-GreenEDGE had four riders up there then. And that they won the stage. Twitter: @rupertguinness