Welcome to the 2018 edition of La Primavera, the first monument of the season. Almost 300 kms of racing awaits the rider today, starting in Milan and arriving at San Remo, after going through some mythical climbs in the race, like Passo del Turchino, the Capos, la Cipressa and Il Poggio.
It’s sprinters versus puncheurs, riders waiting for a sprint versus riders wanting to arrive alone. We hope it will be an exciting race as always. As we all know, la Classicisima is the easiest monument to be in the fight, but the hardest to win. There’s not a certain type of rider that is a given that will win the race, though it’s been a while since anyone broke the sprint in the streets of SanRemo, when Riccardo Ricco triumphed in 2014
The first attack is made by Jiri Polnicky, one of Bewley’s domestiques. The Czech rider is followed by Van Niekerk, Nareklishvili and Cataford. Behind them, De Gendt, Tarvis and Vilela are trying to join the first riders that attacked
But Volvo didn’t want to breakaway to be so big, so they worked until the late attackers were caught, and only were left in front four riders, the first four that attacked
Polnicky Van Niekerk Cataford Nareklishvili
The peloton seems to have fallen sleep in the first 70 kms of racing, as they have allowed the breakaway a gap of 12 minutes. Nothing too worrying at this point, but Cataford is a great rider for this terrain, and could pose a threat later.
Something really important for the race is the very high wind, as riders are suffering winds over 40 km/h, and it looks like it could be lateral-head wind all race for them, which could damage attackers
The breakaways goes through the tunnel in the top of Passo del Turchino with a more reasonable gap to the bunch of 7 minutes. There’s still half of the race left, with 149 kms from here to the finish line in Sanremo
90 kms to go as the peloton reaches the summit of La Manie, where nothing really happened. It would have been a good climb to put a high pace to make the less punchy sprinter to use a lot of energies, specially given that Air France seems to be controlling the race for a later attack of EBH in Poggio or Cipressa. But they haven’t used this climb and maybe they’ll regret later. The gap is now 6 minutes, which the bunch having completely controlled the race
A little over 40 kms left for the breakaway, who is about to start the last and the hardest of the Capos, Capo Berta. They are still holding a 2’30 gap to a bunch, where it’s been hard to see a team completely committed to the chase lately, even seeing bizarre images as everyone stopped in Capo Mele a few kms back, which led to the increase in 1 minute of the breakaway’s advantage
In Capo Berta we see the first attack from the bunch, made by Martin Reimer. Quite a surprise attack, because he’s a rider that with his combo of hill/sprint could be a contender for a nice result in the finish, but Vesuvio has Van der Lijke in the team too, and is much better sprinter, so this move might be to try to put pressure on Evonik, Puma, Moser or Isostar, the teams that has riders that could beat the Dutch in a sprint in Sanremo
Meanwhile, the Georgian champion has been dropped from the breakaway, as the pace was too high for him in Capo Berta. Reimer has reached the summit of Capo Berta with a 20-second gap to the group where Evonik and Puma are working hard to not let him go away. Also, the gap to the leading trio has been reduced to 1’30
There’s only 5 kms to start La Cipressa, and with the bunch pressing from behind, Polnicky attacks what’s left of the breakaway after Van Niekerk was dropped too. Reimer is still 15-20 seconds ahead of the bunch, but it doesn’t look like his move will go all the way
Kamyshev does what can probably be his finest job all season, including cobbled races, to destroy Reimer’s move right before starting La Cipressa, and subsequently, catching the remainder of the breakaway. So 28 kms to go, a high head wind and 2 climbs left to determine who is the first winner of a monument in 2018
So we just have seen a climb to La Cipressa without any attacks and after the pace of Guy Sagiv, who has been working in the front for 250 kms already and isn’t the biggest of climbers... Literally no one has been dropped from the bunch yet, so still all 191 riders that started the day are still in the peloton
Nothing happens in the valley to Il Poggio, with Daniel Oss and Jacopo Mosca been the riders that are pulling from the group. Honestly, Theo Bos or Daniel Thorsen should have a chance to win this race given how it has been raced...
Finally the riders are under the 10-km-to-go arc, which means that Il Poggio is about to start. I really hope that we see some attacks or something interesting for the race, not just slow pace which means a safe sprint
And Poggio is over, and no one did anything. This race is just pathetic, the worst race i’ve seen in my life. We are going to have 180 riders in the sprint in Sanremo, epic stuff...
Not sure of what is Moser’s tactic, because with 5 kms to go, it looks like the rider that will leadout the sprint for Bewley will be Jacopo Mosca, who is a very nice rider, but sprinting isn’t his best ability. Also, everyone has placed themselves in Bewley’s wheel
Mosca
Bewley
Demare
Van der Lijke
Van Stayen
Ciolek
Felline
Houle
Silvestre
Kump
Enger
Oss
Arndt
Wackermann
Polnicky
Grosu
Hagen
3 kms to go, and the downhill is over, now it’s flat roads from here to the finish line. Puma has being able to form an alternative train for Demare, with Felline leading out the Frenchman. Bewley will be leadout by Mosca, and has Van der Lijke on his wheel. The other riders seems to have choosen Demare’s wheel, with Van Stayen, Ciolek, Houle, Silvestre, Kump, Grosu and Kristoff forming all together a sprint train
This is going to be a weird sprint. Puma has been really smart of putting Wackermann in Demare’s wheel so no one can take the slipstream of the Frenchman, so Van Stayen has choosen to lead-out everyone else by going to the center of the road. And Mosca seems to be without energy to leadout Bewley with still 2 kms to go, so the two-times MSR winner might be forced to launch his sprint from very long distance
Bewley doesn’t hesitate and starts his sprint with 2,2 kms to go, and Van der Lijke goes after him without thinking it too. Felline seems powerless now, and Wackermann is making a move now, maybe allowing Demare a fresher leadout, or maybe trying his luck against Bewley by himself?
Bewley and Van der Lijke looks to be opening a little gap to Puma’s trio, and a much bigger one to the rest of the sprinters, with Van Stayen seemingly having caught off-guard and losing Demare’s wheel. Also, Grosu is sprinting from way back not trusting the other sprinters leading out him
Under the Flamme Rouge both Bewley and Van der Lijke have finally broke away from Puma’s failling train, and it looks improbable that anyone but those two will take the win today. Van der Lijke is coming out of Bewley’s slipstream and brings a little more speed, having now his front wheel at the same place as Bewley’s back wheel
Only 600 metres for Bewley and Van der Lijke. The win is likely to be decided by who lasts more sprinting at full speed, remembering that both launched their sprints from over 2kms to go. And in this scenario i would bet for a Van der Lijke win, as he was in Bewley’s slipstream for a long time, and maybe he saved a little more energy.
Behind them, Wackermann and Demare are fighting for the final podium place, while Grosu has gotten a little gap to the group of sprinters, where Van Stayen, Houle and Kump are the only ones sprinting, as Ciolek and Silvestre have both exploded
300 metres to go and both riders are now in paralel as Bewley faded a little earlier than Van der Lijke, but still both can’t keep up with their previous speed, and it’s going to be a drag race for the win in MSR
Demare is gaining the battle for the third place to Grosu by the moment, but the Romanian is coming way much faster. Van Stayen, Houle, Kump and Zabel are fighting for the sixth place, which will be fifth when they overtake the fading Wackermann, while a bit behind Ponzi, Hagen and Reimer are coming at an amazing speed and could challenge for late Top10 places
Final 150 metres for the two leaders, and Van der Lijke has overtaken Bewley to take the lead!!
Grosu is going to overtake Demare for the final podium, but who is going to be the 2018 Milano-Sanremo winner?
It’s NICK VAN DER LIJKE! Clearly the biggest win of the Dutchman career and how it was won, against one of the all-time best rider like Sam Bewley in an agonic sprint
Grosu takes third place after overtaking Demare in the final 100 metres. The Frenchman had the support all-race, and even a nice leadout train, but he wasn’t quick enough to challenge for the win and eventually lost the podium
Zabel wins the battle for 5th place, finishing ahead of Kump, Houle and Van Stayen. The reinging winner didn’t have the legs to sprint for major places today
Van Asbroeck gets a nice 9th place, ahead of Ponzi, Hagen and Reimer, which means that Vesuvio gets another good score from this race with Reimer, who had the legs to sprint to 12th despite having attacked with 40 kms to go and staying almost 15 kms ahead of the group alone. Reimer even crossed the line celebrating his team-mate win
Nick van der Lijke has probably reached his career top today, after winning a very strange edition of Milano-Sanremo, but it won’t matter when looking back in his palmares where it says now Milano-Sanremo winner. Perfect race for his team, which was the only team that attacked from the bunch in the final part of the race, and at least they got rewarded by it with a fantastic win
