John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) took the victory of the 106th Milan-Sanremo from a small group sprint. Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) took 2nd and Michael Matthews (Orica-Greenedge) had to settle for 3rd. For the 3rd year in succession MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung placed a rider in the top 10 with Edvald Boasson Hagen claiming 10th place.
Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung was a talking point throughout the day as Serge Pauwels animated the race by going on the attack from kilometer zero. Serge was joined by 10 other riders as over 290km of open roads lay before them. The escape group pushed on in the rain to open up a gap of just over 10 minutes during the course of the day.
With the Milan-Sanremo being the most prized victory for all sprinters, their teams were sent to the front to control proceedings. The long day out front for the escapees eventually took its toll as the lead gradually started to drop as we entered the final 100km of racing. Once the gap hit 2’00” Serge forced the pace with 3 of his breakaway companions while the remnants of the break were caught with 40km to go.
Although the sun had come out for the finale, the roads were still wet which resulted in a number of crashes over the final 30km. As a result of the crashes, 3 Sky riders were a few seconds clear of the peloton and their persistence on the front reeled in Serge and the final breakaway riders.
There was a natural acceleration over the Cipressa and Poggio which whittled the group down substantially to around 40 riders. Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, Gerald Ciolek and Edvald Boasson Hagen were all still in contention as the Poggio descent began with 5km to go. It was on the descent were misfortune struck Gerald and he was caught up in a big crash, ruling him and a number of other favourites out of the sprint. Edvald was clear of the carnage and the Norwegian was able to hold on for 10th place.
Edvald Boasson Hagen – Rider
Serge Pauwels – Rider
Jens Zemke – Head of Performance
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Who was the MTM oak who crashed -and threw his helmet like that? Not cool. Hope the replacement comes from your own budget.