Welcome to the start of the first Cycling Monument of 2011, Milano - SanRemo!
Last year's winner Filippo Pozzato will not be racing today, which means that we will have a brand new winner. His compatriot, Alessandro Ballan, seems to be the biggest favorite this year but there's a lot of pressure on his shoulders and we will have to see if he will find the winning move that could avoid a mass sprint on the via Roma.
If no one will be strong enough to make the difference on one of the final climbs of the race and the sprinters teams will be able to control the race in the final kilometers leading to San Remo, then we will see the classic mass sprint for La Primavera, even though that's not how the winner has been decided in the past few years.
The Italians are clearly the big favorites to take the win today, with Ballan being the main rider to follow in case of a decisive attack, while Daniele Bennati seems settle to dominate a sprint in front of riders like Sam Bewley, Van Stayen or Steegmans.
But before we go to the real action lets have a look at the classic profile of the race. With a route of 295 kilometers and a few climbs on the route, the race doesn't seem to be the most demanding, but it will definitely be really hard for the riders to pass the final climbs of the race, Capo Cervo, Capo Berta, Cipressa and Poggio after such a long distance so early in the season.
In the early kilometers of the race, six riders went away from the pack in what was going to be the breakaway of the day: Rowe, Eibegger, Ciccarese, Coletta, Klemme and Mancuso
But a pack led mainly by Festina and La Gazzeta never gave them a chance. With a maximum advantage of around 5 minutes and with the last third of the race approaching it was clear that they won't be able to stay in front for too long
With 100 kilometers left before the finish line, 7 riders attacked from the pack and got away quite easily: Walker, Gautier, Schleck, Bertagnolli, Sieberg, Proni and Jacobs
At the foot of Le Manie, the new attackers joined the breakaway group which had left over the pack an advantage of only one minute
With the top of Le Manie approaching the leading riders split into small groups, most of the escapes being caught at the top of the climb or one kilometer before it
At the top, 4 riders were in front and still had a few seconds left in front of the pack. Bertagnolli, Schleck, Gautier and Klemme were the new leaders of the race, while Sieberg and Proni were the only other riders not to be caught yet
The new leading group stayed in front of the pack for an while but their adventure eventually ended with more than 60 kilometers left before the finish in San Remo
In the following kilometers there were no other moves in the pack, but on Capo Cervo, 3 new attackers went away from the pack. Tennant, Burghardt and Steurs were now leading the race
They managed to stay in front for a few kilometers, but they were all caught right before the top of Capo Berta. With almost all riders together in the pack, there were some interesting moves on the downhill from Capo Berta, with Mori launching Ballan into the lead
The Sony Ericsson tactics seemed to be very good as when the flat section before Cipressa was reached, Ballan took advantage of the small gap he got on the downhill and began a solo race, his lead over the pack increasing with each kilometer passed
At the foot of Cipressa, Ballan was clearly in the lead with already an advantage of 45 seconds in front of the pack
Some of the best puncheurs, such as Bakenlats, Rodriguez Oliver, Spilak or Samuel Sanchez, led the pack all the way to the top of Cipressa but they hardly managed to win 5 seconds back to Ballan
Ballan managed to increase his lead once the downhill and the flat sections were reached again, which gave him an advantage of 1 minute and 17 seconds in front of the pack at the moment he reached the foot of Poggio
Bakelants and Franzoi were leading, for Pearl Adidas and Vastaranta, a pack of only 50 riders on Poggio but they didn't manage to gain any seconds back to Ballan, who was clearly heading to the victory on the via Roma
The Sony Ericsson rider lost a few seconds on the final flat section and entered the final 5 kilometers of the race with an advantage of only one minute in front of the pack
Two kilometers later his advantage was still decreasing but with more than 40 seconds left in front of the pack it was pretty clear that the riders from there are fighting only for the second spot now
With just two kilometers left before the finish, the sprint for the second place was launched behind Ballan, with Bewley leading the way in front of Ponzi and Anza, while the other sprinters like Steegmans, Bennati or Van Stayen were way behind him
At the one kilometer banner, Bewley and Anza were leading the pack, looking like having secured the other spots on the podium for themselves and they were also getting closer and closer to Ballan
But it was impossible for them to post a real threat for the Italian even though they were both clearly faster than the former SIC Radical rider in the final kilometers of the race
And the 2011 winner of Milano - San Remo is Alessandro Ballan! The Italian continues Sony's great results in Italy after Trofimov's amazing performance in Tirreno - Adriatico
Anza was faster than Bewley in the final meters of the race, but he failed to gave Sony Ericsson a historical 1-2 in one of the most important races in cycling. Still 2 riders on the podium is a great result for the new promoted team, with the Festina rider taking the second place
Behind them, Ponzi took the fourth place in front of Ginanni and his team - mate, Ignatiev, with Visconti and Baugnies taking 7th and 8th respectively, while Boasson Hagen and Rodriguez Oliver took the last places in the top 10 of this year's La Primavera
