Today’s longest single-day race on the professional calendar saw GreenEdge’s Simon Gerrans (AUS) just barely out sprint RadioShack-Nissan-Trek’s Fabian Cancellara (SUI) for the win, after a cat and mouse 3-man attack in the final 5 kilometers of the race, which included Liquigas’ Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) who came in 3rd to round out the podium for the 2012 Milan-San Remo. And adding to RNT’s good showing, Fabian’s teammate Daniele Bennati (ITA) finished up in 10th spot – an exciting finish to a very long day of racing.
Cancellara looked strong and comfortable all day staying up front in the pack and out of trouble throughout the entire 298-kilometers (158-miles) of racing which saw many crashes and hard spills. Having won here before (2008) and being so strong in the classics, Cancellara is use to being a marked man as all of the contenders know he’s a key threat. There’s no sneak attack when Spartacus strikes. He simply motors away and there’s rarely anything anyone can do about it. However, today that scenario didn’t quite play out as Nibali and Gerrans were just able to keep his wheel and benefited from his slipstream as he powered all of them away from the peloton in the closing kilometers. Neither did much of anything to help Cancellara in this final effort, both hoping to slingshot around him at the end. Unlikely either would have made the podium without him.
The 103rd edition of this cycling monument started out with a moment of silence for the young Belgium school children that died in the tragic bus crash on return from a school skiing holiday. The race itself, which was first run in 1907, has only been cancelled 3 times in its history because of world wars. Often referred to as the Sprinter’s Classic, it started out early this morning in the second largest city in Italy, Milano, in the north and headed due south to the coast of the Mediterranean, before turning southwest along the shoreline to San Remo in the Italian Riviera. It is said that at first this was an automobile race, but it was too grueling for the cars, which kept breaking down.
With a slight tailwind driving the cyclists the pace was brutal from the start averaging 57-kilometers per hour for the first hour. It slowed a bit thereafter, but considering the climbs and curves, not really that much, 43 kmh on average for the second hour and 42 kmh by the third. As probably intended this served to fry the legs of some serious threats like Sky’s World Champion Mark Cavendish who couldn’t hold on even with a strong team attempting to bridge him back when he dropped backward in a large trailing pack. This only caused some of the big teams to push the pace even higher to ensure some of the threats riding with Cavendish would be neutralized. As fast as it was, it still took 6 hours, 59 minutes and 24 seconds to decide the winner, that’s how long this thing is. Some weary looking cyclists struggled back to the team bus after this year’s event.
Strong contingents were fielded by many of the big teams looking to do well here today. There were no less than 6 previous winners in the peloton: Cancellara, Mark Cavendish, Matthew Goss, Oscar Freire, Filippo Pozzato, and Alessandro Petacchi. RNT brought its own strong squad consisting of: Cancellara, Daniele Bennati (ITA), Tony Gallopin (FRA), Markel Irizar (ESP), Grégory Rast (SUI), Yaroslav Popovych (UKR), Harden Roulston (NZL), Robert Wager (GER) and they were strong and protective of Cancellara in his bid.
Nine men broke free early in the morning and stayed away much of the day; Colombia’s Juan Pablo Suarez (COL), Euskaltel’s Juan Jose Oroz (ESP), Farmese Vini’s Pier Paolo De Negri (ITA), Saxo Bank’s Michael Morkov (DEN), Project 1t4i’s Cheng Ji (CHN), Team Type 1’s Vegard Stake Laengen (NOR), Colnago’s Angelo Pagani (ITA), and Utensilnord’s Oleg Berdos (MDA). They were allowed a gap of as much as 14 minutes, but as is tradition (breakaways are rarely successful on this long course), they were all eventually caught well before the closing kilometers.
While there would be a few minor attacks afterward, the attempts were quickly thwarted or abandoned and the lead group of riders stayed relatively bunched together for about the last 50 kilometers before the final winning 3-man break lit out with 5 kms to go. Nibali was the first to jump, with Gerrans looking almost fresh as he dove on his wheel during the acceleration from the pack. Cancellara calculating this might be the winning move, or at least knowing Nibali was too dangerous, fresh off his win at Tirreno-Adriatico to be given much leeway, decided to bridge fast.
Very quickly after that, Cancellara tried to shake them both with one of his patented time trial dashes for the finish line. And he almost pulled it off with a monumental effort. But Gerrans found the legs to hang on to his wheel, and then Nibali to his, so Cancellara ended up dragging all 3 of them to the line at a blistering pace. At one point though, Cancellara slowed a bit and motioned for either of them to help but neither stepped up and so Fabian was left with a cyclist’s nightmare; either slow down in preparation for the sprint, knowing the pack behind, being lead by none other than 3-time winner Oscar Freire might easily overtake them, or keep leading the pace knowing he was strong enough to keep them away, but that one of the two riding with him would be handed a golden opportunity to slingshot passed at the line.
The other 2 men on the podium today, one standing a step above and one a step below Spartacus probably owed their finishing place today to the big 4-time World Champion from Switzerland. A thrilling end to a great race, with a podium of racers that are all having some really hot starts to the 2012 campaign.
TOP 10
1 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Greenedge Cycling Team 6:59:24
2 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Radioshack-Nissan
3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale
4 Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:00:02
5 John Degenkolb (Ger) Project 1T4I
6 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Farnese Vini – Selle Italia
7 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Katusha Team
8 Alessandro Ballan (Ita) BMC Racing Team
9 Daniel Oss (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale
10 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Radioshack-Nissan
Radioshack Nissan Trek
2 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Radioshack-Nissan
10 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Radioshack-Nissan
54 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Radioshack-Nissan
78 Grégory Rast (Swi) Radioshack-Nissan 0:04:44
79 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Radioshack-Nissan
110 Robert Wagner (Ger) Radioshack-Nissan
111 Hayden Roulston (NZl) Radioshack-Nissan
116 Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa) Radioshack-Nissan
By George Hurst
Image: milansanremo.co.uk
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