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

[Gigs_98]

Sagan played it perfectly this time. GAV just F...d his chance.

And speaking of the crash, I've watched it a bunch and I can't tell what happened. I thought Gav looked back before the crash but he didn't. I can't tell why he went down at all and who caused it.

It seems to me like Gaviria's front wheel touched GVA's back wheel while he was looking back and then came down.... that's what I can visualize from the footage..

http://www.steephill.tv/players/720/rai/?title=Last+Km+of+Milan+San-Remo+2016&dashboard=milan-san-remo&id=bbde6e54-e2e5-438d-ad23-c3bd4c348a49&yr=2016

Watch the front view. He clearly NEVER looks back. In fact he's one of the only guys in the front who doesn't look back. It almost looks like GVA may have accidentally swept his wheel. Maybe he got tunnel vision for a split second and didn't react to the wheels in front of him or overlapped for a sec? Weird.

May I just mention that the commentator called Gaviria both Brambilla and Trentin but never Gaviria

 

[Jagartrott]

Re: Re:

I still don't get how Demare and Swift bridged back to the front group. Kristoff was underwhelming.
Boring race. I expected more from GVA, Nibali, Valverde and Sagan.

True, particularly wrt Nibali, after all the talking, where was the attacking? Valverde disappeared, GVA and Sagan were in the mix, but chose not to burn themselves and end up in a tie for second. Props to Kwiat: he did what Nibali said that Nibali was going to do. Big Cance too: the dude is an animal.

Greg said afterwards that too many people were still too fresh, so that attacking was useless.
I'll add that you also need to be a maniac descender (Sagan, Cancellara,...) but while Greg is not so bad, he's not good enough to really kill it downhill.

I think that 5th is about the maximum he can realistically hope to achieve at San Remo.

 

[jaylew]

Sagan played it perfectly this time. GAV just F...d his chance.

And speaking of the crash, I've watched it a bunch and I can't tell what happened. I thought Gav looked back before the crash but he didn't. I can't tell why he went down at all and who caused it.

It seems to me like Gaviria's front wheel touched GVA's back wheel while he was looking back and then came down.... that's what I can visualize from the footage..

http://www.steephill.tv/players/720/rai/?title=Last+Km+of+Milan+San-Remo+2016&dashboard=milan-san-remo&id=bbde6e54-e2e5-438d-ad23-c3bd4c348a49&yr=2016

Watch the front view. He clearly NEVER looks back. In fact he's one of the only guys in the front who doesn't look back. It almost looks like GVA may have accidentally swept his wheel. Maybe he got tunnel vision for a split second and didn't react to the wheels in front of him or overlapped for a sec? Weird.

May I just mention that the commentator called Gaviria both Brambilla and Trentin but never Gaviria

Yeah, that was funny. Eurosport was on it, though. I thought it was obvious once you got the front view.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

An exciting few seconds and congrats to Demare with a very big win.

Some nice footage as the weather turned out just fine, but after a while.... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Awaiting the cobbles races....

 

[King Boonen]

MSR throws up another surprise winner, well done Demare! Bad luck for Gaviria, he did much better than I expected and I'm very surprised how tame the Poggio was. Doesn't matter if people are fresh GVA, it's a Monument, you take your chance or you make it.

 

[Christian]

I am happy for Demare and French cycling in general!

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

And wtf Valverde. Just why? Why starting in this race if you really just following wheels and do absolutely nothing!

Why?

Because that's what he usually does in a Monument.

 

[slosada]

In twitter, Gaviria acknowledges he was at fault.

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

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

He really is pretty similar to Greipel, huge power but rather poor positioning in a bunch sprint, both such in chaotic sprints, both benefit from having a train, can handle the distance and are more than just pure one dimensional sprinters.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

If anyone wonders why there were no significant attack on the Poggio:

http://www.climbing-records.com/

Incredible fast Poggio and Cipressa, yet such a big peloton?

Boring race, nice winner.

 

[DFA123]

If anyone wonders why there were no significant attack on the Poggio:

http://www.climbing-records.com/

Incredible fast Poggio and Cipressa, yet such a big peloton?

Boring race, nice winner.

It's almost as though, unless you are a sprinter, you need to make the race hard before two really easy climbs in the last 25km.

 

[May0maniac]

If anyone wonders why there were no significant attack on the Poggio:

http://www.climbing-records.com/

Incredible fast Poggio and Cipressa, yet such a big peloton?

Boring race, nice winner.

Nibali said that there was a nice tailwind alongside the coastline for most of the race, that + the nice weather and you have a fresh peloton before those 2 climbs.

 

[Carols]

Re: Re:

And wtf Valverde. Just why? Why starting in this race if you really just following wheels and do absolutely nothing!

Why?

Because that's what he usually does in a Monument.

Yeah that's why he's won LBL 3 times.....pffftttt.

 

[Carols]

MSR ushers in the spring and the big classics. It is also my least favorite monument and today is a good example of why.......

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

And wtf Valverde. Just why? Why starting in this race if you really just following wheels and do absolutely nothing!

Why?

Because that's what he usually does in a Monument.

Yeah that's why he's won 3 times.....pffftttt.

Yeah, but post 2009 Valverde usually rides rather conservative in bigger one day races, he's not the guy who takes the initiative, he's the one who reacts.
Back to MSR, the last 25km are usually nice to watch, but I still feel that the race would be better with Le Manie.

 

[DFA123]

If anyone wonders why there were no significant attack on the Poggio:

http://www.climbing-records.com/

Incredible fast Poggio and Cipressa, yet such a big peloton?

Boring race, nice winner.

Nibali said that there was a nice tailwind alongside the coastline for most of the race, that + the nice weather and you have a fresh peloton before those 2 climbs.

That should make it significantly harder for the peloton than a headwind. Surprised we didn't see a few more serious long range attacks if there was a decent tailwind.

 

[Escarabajo]

Re: Re:

Any full results yet?

I'm looking too, just top 10 so far

Full: http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/Milano_Sanremo_2016

Lol, the great puncheur Dayer Quintana finished in front of Cancellara

Lol. Yes. He had no business being there.

 

[May0maniac]

If anyone wonders why there were no significant attack on the Poggio:

http://www.climbing-records.com/

Incredible fast Poggio and Cipressa, yet such a big peloton?

Boring race, nice winner.

Nibali said that there was a nice tailwind alongside the coastline for most of the race, that + the nice weather and you have a fresh peloton before those 2 climbs.

That should make it significantly harder for the peloton than a headwind. Surprised we didn't see a few more serious long range attacks if there was a decent tailwind.

On the other hand Pippo Pozzato said something about a headwind (I wasn't able to hear the whole interview), so who knows.
The weather forcast predicted headwind.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re: Re:

And wtf Valverde. Just why? Why starting in this race if you really just following wheels and do absolutely nothing!

Why?

Because that's what he usually does in a Monument.

Yeah that's why he's won 3 times.....pffftttt.

Yeah, but post 2009 Valverde usually rides rather conservative in bigger one day races, he's not the guy who takes the initiative, he's the one who reacts.
Back to MSR, the last 25km are usually nice to watch, but I still feel that the race would be better with Le Manie.

As much as it would be much more entertaining to watch, I really think the sprinters who can survive some small climbs deserve a monument, and MSR is very finely balanced

 

[trevim]

Regarding my favourites, I'm happy to see Hagen performing at the sharp end of a (easy) monument. If my memory is correct it was the first time it happened in his career. Also Trentin just made his first top10 in a monument, I really hope he can snatch a big classic this season, maybe Harelbeke but it's hard to do it in Quickstep, hopefully he proves me wrong.

The thing with a sprint in San Remo is that we don't really have trains so it's bound to be fun. Great job from Demare and also great for France to get that monument count running again. I still think Bouhanni is better than him (not saying he could have done it today with the gear issue) but at the end of a career what matters is winning when you had the shot and Demare pulled it off today.

Roelandts very good again, I even thought that was Debusschere! Now he only needs a podium in Roubaix and he'll have podiums in every major non-climbing monument. Bodes well for Lotto as well with Benoot riding so well.

Finally, great show from Southeast with Fedi punching way above his weight, attacking like a boss over the Poggio and Pozatto with 8th place. I am quietly expecting to see Pippo showing his natural class over the bergs in the next weeks

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Any full results yet?

I'm looking too, just top 10 so far

Full: http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/Milano_Sanremo_2016

Lol, the great puncheur Dayer Quintana finished in front of Cancellara

Lol. Yes. He had no business being there.

Lol, I glanced over the results and I didn't notice Dayer. Wtf? ST in a monument is incredible by him.

 

[MortiroloForever]

It was such a boring race. A punishment for my eyes.

To be honest, I don't expect too much about Milano-San Remo since 1997, when Zabel won it for his first time, but could anyone tell me the differences between this "monumento" and a flat stage in a grand tour? It looks almost the same to me.

Congrats to Arnaud Demare. I'm really happy to see a french rider winning a monument almost 20 years later. Demare is the first french rider winning Milano-San Remo after Laurent Jalabert (1995). Comparing both editions, it looks like we'd be talking about different races.

In my humble opinion, "La Classiccisima" needs strong changes to do it more attractive to the spectators.

 

[Volderke]

I feel some are expecting too much of Milan-San Remo.
It has been like this many times. It is wat it is... More talk about the race than action in the race.
A shame Bouhanni's chain went to the small ring. A shame Gaviria mis-judged the chicane and movement of riders in front of him swerving to the right to start the sprint. Too bad there wasn't too much wind, so the puncheurs didn't try on the Poggio.
But in the end, Démare did a fabulous sprint that would have been hard to better by anyone in the front group. + he is only 24 and has so many great years ahead. Congratulations!

 

[Bushman]

Re: Re:

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

Yes please !

Why can't some here be happy for Demare? Gaviria coudda, Bouhanni Shoudda, rubbish. Demare's sprint was disrupted by the fall, he put up a monster effort, he was the strongest: period. Overrated? What ? What's next? He was sucking wheels?

It was indeed a really inpressive win, powerful sprint he rode. But you cant deny the fact that the same riders (Demare, Swift) wouldnt have contested for the win if not for the crash. I had really been hoping for Sagan to end his monument drought (if not for Cancellara) and he rode the perfect race I think so I'm a bit pissed that the crash screwed his chances.

We can re-do all the races then. The fact is that Swift and Demare were in the mix, Demare (who had come back from a fall himself) had to break his effort and circle around Gaviria, he made up the gap and won. That's what happened. Who knows if he could have won anyway. He was really strong today. It's completely unfair to make him a winner "by default" because one guy can't stay on his bike, and another one can't shift gears. That's the biggest win of Demare's career. Coming up, he was better than Bouhanni. He had struggles, injuries, doubts, but I think his big sprint/win in PN unleashed his potential. He's no Marcel or Gorilla, but he's a formidable sprinter. All I'm saying is: give the guy his props.

I'm definitely not taking anything away from Demare, he did a tremendous effort to get back and sprinted really well too. Neither at I arguing that it was an undeserved victory.

But for me, personally, Demare's win was overshadowed by the crash in the end. I'm not expecting otters to feel the same way, but I can't feel a bit dissapointed with the finish

 

[Velolover2]

Who do you think would have won if Gaviria had not crashed? Gaviria himself?