Milano San Remo - Who's gonna win it?

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  • Kléber
    Kléber Posts: 6,842
    It's an odd race. 298km but things only really heat up from the Cipressa onwards at 270km and then it goes crazy on the Poggio. Both the Cipressa and Poggio are easy climbs, you'd spin up them in training and so they are not that selective. But the riders make it very hard, pushing a huge gear up the road and using the tight hairpins to accelerate and open up gaps on those behind.

    So a long and relatively flat race with few selective moments but somehow when you look at the list of previous winners of the race, they are all champions.

    Here are the past 20 years:
    1989 Laurent Fignon (Fra) Systmè U
    1990 Gianni Bugno (Ita) Château d'Ax
    1991 Claudio Chiappucci (Ita) Carrera
    1992 Sean Kelly (Ire) Festina
    1993 Maurizio Fondriest (Ita) Lampre
    1994 Giorgio Furlan (Ita) Gewiss Ballan
    1995 Laurent Jalabert (Fra) ONCE
    1996 Gabriele Colombo (Ita) Gewiss Playbus
    1997 Erik Zabel (Ger) Telekom
    1998 Erik Zabel (Ger) Telekom
    1999 Andrei Tchmil (Bel) Lotto
    2000 Erik Zabel (Ger) Telekom
    2001 Erik Zabel (Ger) Telekom
    2002 Mario Cipollini (Ita) Acqua & Sapone
    2003 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick Step-Davitamon
    2004 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Rabobank
    2005 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo
    2006 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Quick Step-Innergetic
    2007 Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank
    2008 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team CSC

    Maybe Colombo and Furlan stand out as less big names but Dr Ferrari was behind them, carthorses becoming thoroughbreds etc, but every other name is known as one of the best riders of their generation, whether a one day specialist or a Grand Tour champion...

    ...so maybe this year some unknown chump will win it! :wink:

    I picked Petacchi for PTP but it's so open. The LPR team alone has Di Luca, capable of a move in the race. Same for Quick-Step, they have several cards to play. But there are many, many contenders. If my sofa had a rivet, I'd be on it this afternoon.
  • emadden
    emadden Posts: 2,431
    micron wrote:
    They're dropping like flies - the beginning of this season seems to be particularly injury prone.

    After all the French success in P-N and T-A, maybe a Frenchman will get on the top of the podium - would love to see it, maybe Chavanel, but won't hold my breath :wink:


    hehehe thats a good plug for my latest post:

    http://dotcycling.com/main/2009/03/20/fallinglikeflies/
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    www.dotcycling.com
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  • dave_1
    dave_1 Posts: 9,512
    Armstrong dropped on Cipressa...mus be great viewing for many...amazed after 4 years off he is still there...
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKBacb2V ... ata_player
  • yogi
    yogi Posts: 456
    What year did Tom Simpson win? Was it 1962?
    http://yogi.terapad.com
  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    yogi wrote:
    What year did Tom Simpson win? Was it 1962?

    '64. Then Lombardy in '65, which was the last British win in a monument.
  • Nelson Longflap
    Nelson Longflap Posts: 129
    Zabel interviewed afterwards, said that Cavendish is the youngest winner after Merckx (who he considers the greatest ever rider)...
  • dave_1
    dave_1 Posts: 9,512
    I see LA putting his performance down to poor positioning on the cipressa...says had good legs? hmm...
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKBacb2V ... ata_player
  • stagehopper
    stagehopper Posts: 1,593
    Dave_1 wrote:
    I see LA putting his performance down to poor positioning on the cipressa...says had good legs? hmm...

    I could have sworn Cavendish was only about three or four spots ahead of Armstrong on the Cipressa.
    @stagehopper

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