Paris (AFP)
Milan-Sanremo opens Saturday to the envy of punchers and sprinters in a 111th edition postponed for five months with a new route and a different weather for the first great classic of the cycling season.
Course and weather: the big change
Thirty degrees is what awaits the peloton of 27 teams, two more than usual with, as a consequence, one less rider per formation. "The temperatures will be much higher than in March", underlines Valerio Piva, the sporting director of CCC (Van Avermaet, Trentin), who predicts: "The runners only have a few days of racing in their legs, so a race 300 kilometers will be very demanding. "
Finally extended by 14 kilometers (6 km more than expected due to weather disturbances), the course reaches 305 kilometers and follows a line further west than the classic route. It reaches the seafront just 36 kilometers from the finish for an identical final with the last two jumps, the Cipressa and the Poggio, two hills overlooking the coast.
The sprinters at the party?
Who wins in the exchange? More than the course, the weather factor is likely to weigh on and the sprinters, deprived of victory since Arnaud Démare's success in 2016, still have their say despite the loss of a teammate to help them. Like, the openly ambitious Australian Caleb Ewan ("I am confident"). But the runner-up in the 2018 edition fears the favorable wind that would thwart his plans, unlike his teammate Philippe Gilbert, winner in his career of four of the five "monuments". The Belgian only lacks the "classicissima"!
The French Arnaud Démare, in resplendent form given his sprint on Wednesday in Milan-Turin, radiates confidence ("I feel strong") four years after his success. Although offering less guarantees so far, the Irish Sam Bennett, the Italian Elia Viviani, the Colombian Fernando Gaviria, the Australian Michael Matthews are also concerned. And, even more, the Belgian Wout Van Aert, so much the winner of the Strade Bianche, last Saturday, caused a strong impression for a week.
"If we arrive in a small or large group in Sanremo, I know I shouldn't be afraid of the sprint," said Van Aert after his third place in Milan-Turin, his first massive sprint since his victory in the Tour last year in Albi. Especially since the Belgian can put up with a selective race before reaching the city of flowers.
The hope of the attackers
The Italian Vincenzo Nibali proved in 2018 that the feat, unexpected as it may be, remains within reach of the attackers (Bettiol, Formolo). To succeed, they need a little mattress lasting a few seconds at the top of the Poggio, 5,450 meters from the line. Unless you succeed in a masterful descent as the Slovenian Matej Mohoric can do (4th in 2019).
A quartet of aces can play the offensive and then wait: Michal Kwiatkowski, the Polish true master at running, Mathieu van der Poel, the Dutchman who has against him to discover the race, Peter Sagan, the Slovak passed close to the victory in 2013 and 2017 (2nd), and Julian Alaphilippe, the outgoing French winner.
"I am neither in the same state of mind nor in the same state of form", however tempers Alaphilippe, who had settled last year a group of a dozen runners on via Roma, this banal street of Sanremo all year round except on race day.
© 2020 AFP