John Degenkolb sprints on the Via Roma. He was the fastest in the sprint but in order to contend he rode an impressive final kilometre to get into position, going in the wind to overtake several riders after a clever ride in the final kilometres, with ideal positioning on the Poggio.
The first Monument of the year and the last chance for the sprinters to win before more hills are added to the route. Sunday’s Milan-Sanremo is all about the tense finish, the paradox of an unpredictable race yet it’s almost always won by a one of the best riders going. Who will keep their nerve?
Sunday’s Milan-Sanremo will use the Cipressa and Poggio climbs. Once a novelty and now a tradition they help spice up the finish, scalable for some sprinters but hard enough to ensure suspense until the very end of the longest one day on the pro calendar.
Over the years the race has added extra climbs to thwart the sprinters and the prospect of the Pompeiana climb looms for 2016. It means this year’s Milan-Sanremo is the last chance for the sprinters to win.
As races go Milan-Sanremo has created many legends and myths. Eugène Christophe’s win in 1910 came after 185 riders abandoned before the race had even started, so grim were the conditions. There’s the emergence of Eddy Merckx who won the race for the first time aged 20. Sean Kelly’s descent off the Poggio rates as a classic. There are far too many moments to list. So let’s take 1946 and the story of Fausto Coppi and his coffee break.
Nairo Quintana rides solo on the way to the Monte Terminillo, the “fantastic four” reduced to one. This was the moment the race was won.
Richie Porte rides up the Col d’Eze. If he’d distanced his rivals on the Col de la Croix du Chaubouret midweek, his margin of victory was much greater in Sunday’s Col d’Eze time trial.
With the fantastic four and more heading to Italy this was the chance for a new name to emerge, for a young starlet to shine on the Côte d’Azur. Only we ended up with a repeat winner aged over 30.
The opening stages rhymed with siesta only for the race to hit the TV jackpot yesterday with a Frenchman winning the stage and taking the yellow jersey after a very eventful stage. Can Tony Gallopin win Paris-Nice? It’ll be close. Richie Porte is in the prime position to profit but there are four riders within six seconds of him.
Note the early finish of the stage today, see the TV listings below for more.
Look closely at the image above and Richie Porte’s marking Michał Kwiatkowski. With just one second separating Michał Kwiatkowski and Richie Porte this will be a hard day for Team Sky and Etixx-Quickstep because as close as the gap between the two is, there are 20 riders within 90 seconds on GC. Can they control the race?
It’ll be hard as today is a a mini-world championships, a stage that many in the peloton have been looking forward to all week, including a significant proportion of the bunch who live near Nice and Monaco and use these roads for training and know the descents.
A short piece to mark a change in the sport. The UCI are clamping down on mechanics leaning out of car windows to service riders in a races. It’s been such a famous image from many races and now it’s going away for good. It’ll have tactical consequences too.
