This weekend!!! So who's going to win?
10 riders to watch from Cycling News...
Kristoff gone a bit quiet, has to be the top pick building up to MSR. Degenklob out unfortunately. Cancellara looking superb having won Strada and the ITT at Tirreno Adriatico. GVA and Sagan rivalry brewing nicely. Mathews on form. Thomas and Kwiatkowski looking good for Sky. Eddy Boss and Cav going well too. Will Gaviria be there at the end? Will Nibbles go for his usual long ranger? Can't wait 🙂
EBH, I've just got a hunch this might be his year, though Matthews is in the mix too. In fact, I saw EBH with astonishingly long odds for Paris-Roubaix and should have dropped a couple of quid on him each way.
Stybar's looked pretty good thus far.
Did think about Stybar, he is on super form, but not sure the finish is best suited for him.
If it doesn't get cancelled, winter has just arrived here, the milan sanremo goes past my house and its sleeting!!!
Oooh didn't know you were on here. Must come out and watch it with you sometime 🙂
Sagan to do a Kelly off the Poggio...Bouhanni top 3.
I want Super Sagan to win, but then I want him to win everything. 🙂
Nooooo!!If it doesn't get cancelled, winter has just arrived here, the milan sanremo goes past my house and its sleeting!!!
Sagan to finish 2nd. 😀
Cav 33/1
Sagz, GvA and Kristoff for me. Not necessarily in that order.
If it's wet I'm hoping for a Sagan, Stybar and Cancellara break-away on the Poggio descent, then my heart says Cancellara for the win but any of those 3 winning would be fine by me.
I would love G to win, but realistically probably between Spartacus and 'Bling' Matthews.
EBH on form but I can't see past Kristoff. Would love to see a long range swansong attack from Cancellara
Sagan to be second....of course
It's a lovely sonny morning here on the Riviera, just like yesterday morning... about time as the MS has always been cold and wet!!
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Nice... come on Nacer!
Can't see EBH or Cav featuring. Likewise the Sky boys.
Cancellara in ominous form, but will be hard for him to succeed in a breakaway without some seriously strong riders for company. Sagan will be heavily marked, but the final descent suits his power. I wouldn't be surprised to see Matthews and Bouhanni slugging it out in another sprint.
Weather could be a factor though. Should be an exciting race!
Agreed, its a sprinters race, however theres lots of opportunity for upset in 300k. Detour due to landslide just announced, doesnt change the race though.
I've now got four bets, Thomas as for the breakaway@100/1, Cav out of optimism @33/1, Kristoff and Sagan as actual likely winners.
Dont normally gamble but laid up sick so adds to the interest of the day.
Steve Cummings as a real outsider. Having Cav and EBH in his team could work for him like it did at Tirreno-Adriatico. He's a man who knows how to make a last few k solo break stick and clearly in stellar form too. Unlikely to win but I bet he's in at the death.
crazy amount of crashes in the last 5 minutes
Yeah, getting really nervy.
Thats my unaccounted for 1k out of it then.
If that 9km diversion along the motorway hadn't been put in, my time guess on the Rapha website (running a competition to guess the finishing time) would have been spot on. As it is, I'm bloody way off!
Bloody hell, that was SO close for Ben Swift!!
Shame for Sagan. He was perfectly positioned until Gaviria went down and bumped into him.
Ben Swift. Always the bridesmaid.
Well who'd have predicted that! Really is a lottery of a race.
Ben Swift. Always the bridesmaid.
He's had 3rd and 2nd now at MSR.
Mind you, he also got stalled a bit by Gaviria's crash.
Steve Cummings as a real outsider. Having Cav and EBH in his team could work for him like it did at Tirreno-Adriatico. He's a man who knows how to make a last few k solo break stick and clearly in stellar form too. Unlikely to win but I bet he's in at the death.
This for me, MTN seem to be going quietly about their business and are almost under the radar with a team of has-beens and never-was's....only problem for the other Grand Tour teams is they are actually doing something right, riders are coming back into form, older previously written of riders are on the come back trail and guys like EVBH who were dismissed as mere Doms at Sky are starting to show what they can do when unshackled from the constraints of a large team....loving watching MTN at the moment, i'd love to see them throw a spanner in the works and win....god knows Cav is capable and has done it before, EVBH could do it if he could believe and Cummings always seems up for a fight, bring it on!
Milan San Remo results notwithstading i stand by what i said, MTN are a great team to have in the UCI pro tour...kind like when USpostal turned up and shook things up...lets hope theres no doping this time though.
ahhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. So who won! My recording finished 500m from the finish !!!
Yeh - looked very "ready" tooShame for Sagan. He was perfectly positioned until Gaviria went down and bumped into him.
tonyg - Demare (spellen?) won it in a fragmented sprint
I'm happy Demare won, I like him - mainly because he's a French sprinter who isn't Bouhanni.
Good attempt by Sky, they threw everything at that. I never felt they were going to get the win though.
Nice race...felt sorry for Nacer...slipped his gears at a crucial moment.
Not a great race today,San Remo is up there as one of my favourite races but it wasn't as entertaining as it normally is.
Could have been more attacks. Nibali attacking from about 3 metres from the top of the Poggio seems a bit [i]well I've said I'm gonna do this, so I best do something...[/i]. Crash at the end spoilt it a bit as well I thought.
But, always a good finish MSR. Mad descending and uncertainty all the way. Feel bad for Ben swift. Would have been a huge win for him.
I find it hard to feel for Bouhanni.....because he's a right gobs@#$e.
the classics cannot always be classics, crashes all over, and then the final one killed it for the sprint
cancellara bridging to kwiatkowski was great, anyone but Trentin with him then would he have got it?
He's the Millwall of pro cycling...nobody likes him.I find it hard to feel for Bouhanni.....because he's a right gobs@#$e.
older previously written of riders are on the come back trail and guys like EVBH who were dismissed as mere Doms at Sky are starting to show what they can do when unshackled from the constraints of a large team...
EVBH was a protected rider for years at Sky and rarely delivered, he always runs out of puff on the long classics
Standard on the other hand was as you describe but now earning projected status
It did feel like a comedy of errors watching, sure it didnt riding mind. Maybe it was the weather or the way there all super fit even early in the season.
Watching each of my bets come to grief then the fella fall in front of Sagan was the final straw, although tbh he looked khalf asleep to me, I dont think he fancied another sprint with those remaining.
Noticable too was the production of the programme which has definitely gone all sky now the anglo saxons are taking an interest in road cycling.
Interesting riders from 2 teams saying Demare held on to his team car up the cipressa after his crash
Just tuned in for the last 50km yesterday, I thought the last 10km was satisfyingly unpredictable.
I'd have been crying too if I was gaviria and I'd just ridden 300km and fallen off of my own accord in the last km.
Demare looked a worthy winner from what I saw.
Bit more on the Demare thing.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/riders-accuse-demare-of-taking-a-tow-from-a-team-car-during-milan-san-remo/
His Strava file has been deleted, but not before a journalist got a screenshot. He got the KOM up Cipressa, impressive work for a sprinter...
[url= http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/demares-milan-san-remo-data-file-deleted-from-strava/ ]http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/demares-milan-san-remo-data-file-deleted-from-strava/[/url]
This could get interesting!
Wonder if they'll act on that?
No video or photo evidence, stewards say no. If Demare releases his data I wonder if a few others will follow suit from suspect rides in the past. Fabs "motor" bike for instance
I was working on a high-profile race a couple of years ago where something similar happened. Problem was, no-one could work out if it was towing or if the rider had taken a lap out then jumped in somewhere near the front group but out of sight of cameras/Commissaires.
Bottom line was that no-one had seen anything untoward - we knew [b]something[/b] was up just from the timings of the groups on the road but with no absolute proof the result had to stand.
Teams are always very quick to complain about other riders, other cars etc getting what they perceive to be an unfair advantage while at the same time trying any underhand tactic they can get away with too.
At the moment, Commissaires don't have the power to act on power/Strava data, especially post-event. A Commissaire's power ends once the race has been concluded except in cases of giving out fines collected during the actual race. They aren't permitted to go back to a race from yesterday, last week etc and re-jig the results just cos a rider was caught cheating.
The UCI might still have the power to act on it but it would require a lot more evidence than this (although you've got to admit, it's a weird coincidence that he's deleted his Strava file...)
With the march of technology, it would be possible (although very time-consuming) to interrogate everyone's data afterwards but it would turn the sport into nothing more than number crunching and you end up with armchair experts tearing everything to shreds (much the same way they did when Froome released all his power data).
If it's true then I'd pay next months salary to be in the room when he and the DS get a bollocking from Marc Madiot.
Don't think I'd need much French to understand it 😉
Curious to see what information comes to light. Phone camera photos and videos etc. Helicopter footage that wasn't shown on TV. I'd imagine there would need to be an overwhelming amount of "evidence" published in the media before any sort of official investigation.
It's still Strava - I just followed a link from Race Radio twitter. Demare set this year's KOM and equaled the overall, set by Kwiakowski (last year?). So not off-the-chart smoking gun but worth a chin-stroke for an underperforming sprinter.