No love for the puncheurs, as all favourites are sprinters according to the race organisation.
Several teams try to get in the break, but in the end a breakaway of only five riders (three teams) is formed: Filutas, English, Malori, Mäder and Van Hooydonck. The teams that tried to join the break as well but were unable to do so were Podium Ambition, Philips, Farfetch, Xero and Evonik.
We’re around halfway the race as the peloton crosses the top of the Passo del Turchino 3’30” later than the five breakaway riders. The maximum gap was only 4’20”, no wonder when you have domestiques from so many teams working here: ISA – Hexacta, Vesuvio, Isostar, Puma, Festina, Zwift, King Power, Moser – Sygic and Huski Chocolate.
A very Milano – San Remo-esque picture of the five leaders with 100 km to go. They have a gap of 3’ over the peloton, and it’s interesting to see Malori and Filutas doing 99% of the work here.
53 km left as the leaders are on the first of three capo’s, the Capo Mele. English, Mäder and Van Hooydonck have a 1’15” gap over the peloton, as Filutas and Malori have been dropped.
The attackers now constantly trying to get away and be the longest survivor. Nobody can make a difference on the Capo Cerva though. 46 km to the finish line, the peloton at one minute.
The Capo Berta also sees the leading trio stay together. The peloton coming very close now, only 25” behind with 39 km left.
The break gets caught just before we start the ascent of the Cipressa. Rickaert leads the peloton over the first slopes, as Gaviria, Degenkolb, Demare, Eislers and Grosu are found near the head of the peloton.
Here it is, the top of the Cipressa with 23.5 km to the finish line. Gaviria and Demare haven’t gone outside of the first five positions the whole climb, whereas other interesting names coming closer to the front are Ewan, Ahlstrand, Coquard and Houle.
The riders about to start the Poggio climb now with only 10 km left! Puma, King Power and ISA – Hexacta the most active at the front at the moment.
We’ve reached the top of the Poggio with 5.5 km to the finish line, and nobody made a move! King Power set the pace for most of the climb, and now we see four Zwift riders coming to the front. They are missing their leader Yates though.
3 km left, the sprinters are missing! The biggest names in the top-20 positions are currently Gidich (6th), Wisniowski (8th), Santos (12th), Summerhill (13th), Lutsenko (14th), Koretzky (17th) and Sagan (18th). Could we see a very surprising winner?
2 km to go! Sagiv and Cherkasov with a small gap over Quita and the rest of the peloton!
But it’s the Northern classics rider going strong under the red kite! Summerhill in the lead, Wisniowski in second! Best placed sprinter is Santos in 12th position!
Seems like Wisniowski can’t match Summerhill’s acceleration, the American 600 meters away from glory in the streets of San Remo! Santos sprinting hard now though, and it’s not Demare but lead-out Aregger who found his wheel just in time!
400 meters left for the Amaysim rider, who’s still going strong despite the sprinters behind him coming in quickly! Behind them the riders trying to find their way into the top-5 include Niu, Koretzky and Sagan!
Aregger now trying to time his final jump perfectly! 200 meters to go as Summerhill still has a comfortable lead!
He starts celebrating with less than 100 meters to go! First monument of the season going to Amaysim?!
Yes! Amaysim – Cervélo takes the first monument of the year after a powerful attack by Summerhill left the others no chance!
Santos sprints to a second place ahead of Aregger (3rd) and other classics rider Wisniowski (4th), whereas Niu (5th) and Sagiv (6th) deliver their teams some extra points with another rider high up the classification.
Frenchies Russo (7th) and Koretzky (8th) then come in ahead of Sagan (9th) and Cherkasov (10th), whereas the rest of the top-20 is as follows: Ewan the first PCT rider in 11th, Yates 12th, Ulissi 13th, sprinters Demare and Degenkolb 14th and 15th, then three domestiques with Gerts (16th), Narvaez (17th) and Bernas (18th), and top riders Ahlstrand and Gidich 19th and 20th.
