WvA has been riding road for a few seasons, in local Belgian events only. It this year he’s touted to do more including PR and De Ronde.. it will be good to see how he takes PR on.
I too think the faves all rode themselves out of it, too much looking around at Sagan..
About 12 months ago I spotted that the Vuelta Cataluña route came past our house and had a stage finish at the top of a local climb which is a real brute, 1000m of height gain in 12km. A couple of weeks before the race, MrsPB and I decided to ride up it so off we set. A few hairpins into the climb a couple of riders come shooting past, one in particular dressed in every piece of Movistar riding kit made, thermal jacket, roubaix longs, full gloves, balaclava, the works. He gave us a cheery hello and cleared off in big ring. Some time later I arrived at the top to see him chatting to his mate in the little carpark. I rode over to look down the climb for Trish and he started chatting about my bike, tyre sizes etc, the usual bollocks. I replied in my broken Spanish, turns out he lives up near Tarragona. I summonded my best vocab and informed him that the Vuelta Cataluna would be up here in a couple of weeks, he replied, “I know, I’m in it” his mate piped up “his name is Marc Soler”
He’s today just won the Paris-Nice.
You have to be sensible sometimes and play to your strengths and weaknesses. Everyone knows Sagan can sprint, it’s what he does… So of course you’re not going to put yourself in a position where you’re tired as the sprint comes up, it would be crazy to do so.
I’m not even going to start predicting a winner this weekend. The Classics are hard enough to call at the best of times but Milan often throws up a surprise. What I will predict is that this years race will be a real corker with so many riders who can climb a bit and sprint a bit in very good form.
My heart says Sagan though! Current saviour of cycling?