Milano - Sanremo: March 20, 2021

[Krokro]

MvdP clearly can't sprint after a very hard race.

Sure, finishing after Stuyven, Ewan, WVA and Sagan shows that he really has a bad sprint.

 

[jaylew]

Ewan must be gutted, probably never get another chance like that at Milan San Remo.

Why not? It's not the 1st time he's been 2nd. here.

 

[Climbing]

He already got 2nd when Nibali won it.
Does anyone get the Ineos tactics? If they wanted to favour Pidcock they needed to ride a higher pace on the Cipressa and more irregular on the Poggio.

Sometimes it feels like they're racing to ruin cycling, they surely doing a good job at that

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I don't really understand SKA there, but let's see what he has to say,

He missed the attack. From that position, he only had a chance if he bridged, which he did. Stuyven was done, so there was no alternative but to lead out Stuyven or get overtaken both.

 

[Winnen]

Stuyven! Well deserved. The 'Big three' just not good enough.

Poel again bad positioning. He had to come from too far to follow Wout and Ala on Poggio. And when he started his sprint he was also too far back. Wout did this much better. Bad positioning is often related to bad legs. But MVP showed on Poggio that he could bridge that gap pretty fast. So he wasn't that bad. But still it did not have that extra-terrestrial feeling to it.

Sagan and Ewan both impressive. Did not expect them in the top 5.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Ewan must be gutted, probably never get another chance like that at Milan San Remo.

That was said in 2018 too, very possible a third opportunity arises. Cresting the Poggio in second, otoh...

 

[Billie]

Where did Mohoric come from. he was not close to Kwiatkowski and Sagan on the top

 

[BlueRoads]

Not everyone is at the top of their game at 25 yo. Step by step Stuyven is buildibg him a nice palmares.

I don't begrugde him the win. I' also kind of glad tactics can still play a big role and that watts aren't everything. But this win was surely helped by circumstances a lot. (Of course he was also strong.)

 

[roundabout]

He missed the attack. From that position, he only had a chance if he bridged, which he did. Stuyven was done, so there was no alternative but to lead out Stuyven or get overtaken both.

I'll have to rewatch to see what gap they actually had at 1km to go if there was some very slight space to race more tactically.

 

[yaco]

My 3 takes

1. Ewan was the strongest
2. Sagan is returning to form
3. TA was such a tough race it took the edge off the big three.

 

[BlueRoads]

My 3 takes

1. Ewan was the strongest
2. Sagan is returning to form
3. TA was such a tough race it took the edge off the big three.

I think mostly this was an extremely tactical race. But yeah, Ewan very strong, Sagan way better than expected.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

My 3 takes

1. Ewan was the strongest
2. Sagan is returning to form
3. TA was such a tough race it took the edge off the big three.

4. Pidcock has the tactical sense of a brick

 

[Eeslliw]

Ewan did everything right except the final 200, still great ride. Good ride by Sagan as well but the winner outsmarted them.

And what could he have done diffrently? What was his mistake in last 200m? Should he start sprinting earlier?

 

[Winnen]

Was Ewan in the first group after the Cipressa? I can't remember....

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Sure, finishing after Stuyven, Ewan, WVA and Sagan shows that he really has a bad sprint.

he opened up the sprint (well Alaph did), kinda similar to Van Aert in Tirreno. It was a last ditch effort from VDP to go full from long.

I get the feeling he doesn't particularly like this race either. What I can't understand is why he starts the Poggio in 25th position. That cost him more than anything.
Tbh a win for VDP never looked on the cards today. 100 man on Cipressa is a bad sign for punchers.

Nice win by Stuyven, should be talked about much more. Perfectly timed attacked. Played it smart with Kragh.

 

[IndurainsTdF1994]

Not everyone is at the top of their game at 25 yo. Step by step Stuyven is buildibg him a nice palmares.

Stuyven is 29, with three one-day race wins. Definitely well deserved today!

 

[roundabout]

Maybe he didn't want to start any you-pull-no-you-pull arguments with Stuyven, so he figured he might as well go for it.

Just seems a bit odd to me to pull the nominally faster sprinter, but maybe there was no space for tactical games.

 

[Climbing]

Was Ewan in the first group after the Cipressa? I can't remember....

Ewan was in 2nd position at the summit... he was absolutely impressive.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

My 3 takes

1. Ewan was the strongest
2. Sagan is returning to form
3. TA was such a tough race it took the edge off the big three.

I think van Aert was the strongest, he had to take a detour around van der Poel in the sprint and still only got beaten by Ewan by a noselength. He was also doing more work than Ewan. I didn't really feel van Aert lost an edge since TA.
But Ewan was very strong, never expected that, and probably (imho) 2nd strongest. His presence and how good he looked certainly had a huge impact on the chasing group.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Stuyven! Well deserved. The 'Big three' just not good enough.

Poel again bad positioning. He had to come from too far to follow Wout and Ala on Poggio. And when he started his sprint he was also too far back. Wout did this much better. Bad positioning is often related to bad legs. But MVP showed on Poggio that he could bridge that gap pretty fast. So he wasn't that bad. But still it did not have that extra-terrestrial feeling to it.

Sagan and Ewan both impressive. Did not expect them in the top 5.

it doesn't have the ET feeling because the Poggio is simply too easy. When the speed is high you can't "out accelerate" anyone so much as he did in Strade Bianchi where it was 18% and start speed is low.

I don't think this race suits him as much as we think it does.

 

[saganftw]

i think alaphillippe,van aert and van der poel need to start attacking sooner, not 500m from the top

van aert was riding very defensive race, apart from that half-a55ed "attack" at the top he was just marking, and van der poel was too far behind on poggio and in the sprint

they are too good to just see how the race goes

 

[Breezy1985]

My 3 takes

1. Ewan was the strongest
2. Sagan is returning to form
3. TA was such a tough race it took the edge off the big three.

1. Stuyven was the strongest

 

[Danskebjerge]

While Andersen handed the victory to Stuyven, Alaphilippe pulled so hard at the end that it seems the chasing group would not have caught Stuyven and Andersen at all. So Andersen and Alaphilippe were the big losers here, but hey, they were going for it.

 

[jaylew]

And what could he have done diffrently? What was his mistake in last 200m? Should he start sprinting earlier?

Nothing he could have really done imo. He needed Wellens or another Lotto to hang on over the Poggio. If he leads the sprint out earlier, he gets swamped by VDP, WVA, and Sagan.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Just seems a bit odd to me to pull the nominally faster sprinter, but maybe there was no space for tactical games.

Under normal conditions, Stuyven is much faster, but as you can see, Stuyven had a huge gap and still SKA bridged very fast. You could see Stuyven bonk big time. SKA probably thought he had better odds beating a cooked Stuyven, than against a fresh Ewan, van Aert and van der Poel... wouldn't you?