107th Milano - Sanremo, 19th March 2016, 291 km, WT

[Irondan]

Demare surprised me with this win, hats off to him and his team. I always thought he was a bit overrated.

 

[DBotero]

Re: Re:

What happened to Bouhanni at the end. Did he give up or have a gear problem? Worst possible winner for me.

Lighten up. It's only a cycling race.

What's wrong with Demare He's a classy sprinter after all nothing to hate.

 

[Leffe_Bruin]

Bouhanni would have won easily without that gear problem

 

[Gigs_98]

The last few kilometers were exciting, but WTF was wrong with everyone on the Poggio?
Cancellara? Didnt attack. Van Avermaet? Didnt attack. Nibali? Didnt attack (except you saw that short stretching of legs as an attack). Valverde? Didnt attack. Sagan? Didnt attack.
The only thing all these guys did was to bring the only attack of the Poggio back, doing a perfect leadout for the sprinters who were behind and probably wouldnt have had a chance if they had to chase Kwiatkowski.

 

[DFA123]

Bouhanni would have won easily without that gear problem

He should learn how to shift properly then. People acting like a mechanical like that isn't rider error 90% of the time.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Re:

Swift is an MSR podium specialist.

He's an Allan Davis type of rider.

 

[Rollthedice]

Fdj killing it in TT, winning MSR, what's next, Tour de France?

 

[Irondan]

The last few kilometers were exciting, but WTF was wrong with everyone on the Poggio?
Cancellara? Didnt attack. Van Avermaet? Didnt attack. Nibali? Didnt attack (except you saw that short stretching of legs as an attack). Valverde? Didnt attack. Sagan? Didnt attack.
The only thing all these guys did was to bring the only attack of the Poggio back, doing a perfect leadout for the sprinters who were behind and probably wouldnt have had a chance if they had to chase Kwiatkowski.

I thought that was a bit weird too. What happened to Nibali? Attacking at the top of the poggio? Didn't he play that song before?

 

[hfer07]

Re: Re:

lol @ bouhanni

he must be really mad about loosing to demare

his gears broke...

Seriously? I thought his legs didn't have it. then he acted like a baby.

He absolutely had the legs. Desperately unlucky.

YES - noticed it too and cannot help feeling bad for him to give away a monument because of the gears malfunctioning

 

[Jagartrott]

First French monument win in over 18 years and the most overrated French rider is the one who does it.

What a stupid comment.
Démare has shown good form this year, and did not steal this victory. Came back from way back before Cipressa, and rode a 500 m sprint with Swift in his wheel. Deserved win.

 

[Irondan]

Bouhanni would have won easily without that gear problem

He should learn how to shift properly then. People acting like a mechanical like that isn't rider error 90% of the time.

This ^^^^

 

[classicomano]

Lets just be glad Demare won. Seeing the alternatives and all.

Sucks to be Gaviria right now though.

 

[Mr.White]

First French monument win in over 18 years and the most overrated French rider is the one who does it.

I guess this win proves he's not overrated at all!

 

[jaylew]

Re: Re:

What happened to Bouhanni at the end. Did he give up or have a gear problem? Worst possible winner for me.

Lighten up. It's only a cycling race.

You're kidding, right? I just pointed out that the rider I'd least like to see win, won. That's it. I'm not on suicide watch. I'm not having a tantrum. I'm not going to post about it for days on end. I'm going to enjoy the rest of my day. There's really nothing to "lighten up" about.

Fwiw, Bling can't complain too much as Demare was caught up in the crash with him. You certainly gotta give him credit for winning after that.

 

[Irondan]

First French monument win in over 18 years and the most overrated French rider is the one who does it.

I guess this win proves he's not overrated at all!

Nope, not any more...

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Arnaud Démare is a great rider when healthy and on form. You don't win the Dunkerque GC without having more dimensions to you than pure sprinting. He's just had a rough period when Bouhanni has progressed beyond him and their rivalry amplified it. A bit like how Greipel was seen relatively negatively following his period of intra-team rivalry with Cav and not being at the top straight after fleeing the HTC nest, but he's proven himself a more complete rider, a more willing helper and has proven himself equally strong at the top level (and at this point is probably actually the stronger of the two). Démare has the quality, he's shown it before, just not with any consistency.

And Jürgen Roelandts is a man of greatness who I wish every success to this Classics season.

FDJ winning monuments

 

[DFA123]

The last few kilometers were exciting, but WTF was wrong with everyone on the Poggio?
Cancellara? Didnt attack. Van Avermaet? Didnt attack. Nibali? Didnt attack (except you saw that short stretching of legs as an attack). Valverde? Didnt attack. Sagan? Didnt attack.
The only thing all these guys did was to bring the only attack of the Poggio back, doing a perfect leadout for the sprinters who were behind and probably wouldnt have had a chance if they had to chase Kwiatkowski.

Yeah, it's frustraing. I guess that its just very, very difficult for a puncheur to win this race. The Poggio is so easy, that sprinters will have enough team-mates to pace them back in the last few km.

You would need someone like Cancellara or Sagan to basically sacrifice themselves on the flat to keep a select group clear. And no-one's going to do that.

With good weather, anything other than a sprinter winning would be a major upset.

 

[mr. tibbs]

Re:

Fdj killing it in TT, winning MSR, what's next, Tour de France?

I wouldn't mind seeing a year where Madiot got to lord it over all the Brailsfords and Vinos of the peloton.

 

[yaco]

Re:

Actually Swift was behind Matthews on the Poggio and was caught up in a minor crash with about 7km to go so both he and Démare put in pretty special rides.

Problem was OGE had 5 riders involved in the crash and there were damaged bikes - I can't remember any OGE team- mate pacing Matthews back to the peleton - Anyway that's the breaks in cycling - Demare and Swift did an awesome job to get back to the peleton and have energy left for the finish.

 

[VanBsr]

Poggio looked so easy this year. And Cancellara and Sagan neutralize themselves again on the downhill like in 2013

 

[Irondan]

Pozzato proved he's not dead after all..

 

[yaco]

Re:

Fdj killing it in TT, winning MSR, what's next, Tour de France?

Imagine the pressure FDJ will be under for the TDF - Hope it's not insufferable.

 

[roundabout]

Re: Re:

What happened to Bouhanni at the end. Did he give up or have a gear problem? Worst possible winner for me.

Lighten up. It's only a cycling race.

You're kidding, right? I just pointed out that the rider I'd least like to see win, won. That's it. I'm not on suicide watch. I'm not having a tantrum. I'm not going to post about it for days on end. I'm going to enjoy the rest of my day. There's really nothing to "lighten up" about.

Fwiw, Bling can't complain too much as Demare was caught up in the crash with him. You certainly gotta give him credit for winning after that.

If Demare is indeed the rider you least like to see win, then you do need to lighten up.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The last few kilometers were exciting, but WTF was wrong with everyone on the Poggio?
Cancellara? Didnt attack. Van Avermaet? Didnt attack. Nibali? Didnt attack (except you saw that short stretching of legs as an attack). Valverde? Didnt attack. Sagan? Didnt attack.
The only thing all these guys did was to bring the only attack of the Poggio back, doing a perfect leadout for the sprinters who were behind and probably wouldnt have had a chance if they had to chase Kwiatkowski.

Yeah, it's frustraing. I guess that its just very, very difficult for a puncheur to win this race. The Poggio is so easy, that sprinters will have enough team-mates to pace them back in the last few km.

You would need someone like Cancellara or Sagan to basically sacrifice themselves on the flat to keep a select group clear. And no-one's going to do that.

With good weather, anything other than a sprinter winning would be a major upset.

I think 2010 was the worst for that. Garzelli leapt onto the front and drilled it on the Poggio, and third wheel is Asthma-Jet Petacchi breathing through his nose. The race is being made progressively hillier in order to try and enforce selectivity. I think the PRC guys had an interesting graphic showing the size of the winners' group at Sanremo and how it's increased prior to each additional hill. Visko posted it here back in 2014.

Of course what it doesn't show is the size of the "bunch" - the year Bettini won he, Celestino and Paolini held off a bunch of nearly 80 (huge even for that era of Sanremo), and the year Pozzato won the bunch was about 70-strong but Pozzato actually held it off to the line rather than winning the sprint so shouldn't really count as the winner's group. Also the numbers aren't always quite right as there are time gaps within the bunch (the Pozzato win sees 33 riders on the same time as Pippo, but another 40 at +5", they weren't dropped!).

We seemed to be headed more towards the classic selectivity of Sanremo after the introduction of Le Manie - you have Goss winning from 8 in 2011, the Gerrans win from three just ahead of another smallish group of about 15 in 2012, and a group of 7 ahead of a group of 30 or so in the bizarre part-neutralized 2013 edition that Ciolek won. The winner's group sizes seem to be growing again though as the sprinters are getting used to the new route.

 

[Bushman]

Re:

I like how Cancellara uses his attack to bring back the peloton rather than trying to win

Of course he tried to win but he is, with Sagan perhaps, the most marked man in the peloton. When he scratches his nose, you can bet there is Etixx, BMC, Katusha rider watching