ANDERSON: Gerrans shows huge heart to win a classic

At 3am Sunday morning, the phone started buzzing. After continual buzzing and sleepy frustration I rolled over to look at the phone and realised with astonishment and absolute joy that Simon Gerrans had posted the most significant result of his career.

Simon is starting to rack up some impressive palmeries. He is now a rider that can never be underestimated.

Historically the Milan-San Remo is a beautiful straightforward race. Instructions to win have been pretty much the same for many years.

Simon would have been a protected rider whose goal was to look for opportunities from the Cipressa climb to the finish. 2011 winner Matt Goss would have been protected even more, keeping out of trouble and waiting for a sprint to the finish.

GreenEDGE riders have impressively done their job by keeping the two out of the wind and close to the front as the field approached the Cipressa and Poggio climbs.

Milan-San Remo is not a race I ever aspired to win. It was far too early in the long season ahead of me and my goal at that point of time was of course the Tour of Flanders, a far more select race with far fewer opportunities to win and far fewer riders who could win it.

In a race like the Milan-San Remo, I would, like Simon, have seized an opportunity if it came my way and often finished well placed in the field but never at the pointy end.

The field had come together after a break away and the contenders were strung out on the final climb – the infamous Poggio – when Nibaldi attacked.

Simon’s instructions would have been clear; look for opportunities should the race break up. He was of course, quick to react, closely followed by none other than race favourite Fabian Cancellara.

Simon has always been considered to be a tactically smart rider and he was well placed at the most critical time of the race.

When racing for the finish against riders of the caliber of Nibaldi, and particularly Fabian Cancellara, Simon could only do what he does best, use his brains. The result a classic David and Goliath battle where brain was the victor over braun.

Fabian Cancellara on the other hand is racking up an impressive list of races that he has been runner up, or close to. While he dominates in time-trials, he has made some major judgment errors in very important career races.

Time-trial riders are often not tactically prepared for a race like the Milan-San Remo. He clearly expects to dominate races and ride contenders off his wheel with the extraordinary show of strength which he has become famous for.

Fabian Cancellara is a fearsome athlete but his arrogance has started to cost him dearly and the lessons must be learnt if he is to achieve further wins in the major classics.

After posting an awesome result by the diminutive Simon Gerrans for GreenEDGE, the Milan San-Remo organisers have already announced that perhaps the race was not hard enough and their desire was for the strongest rider to win.

This outcome could be achieved by moving the finish line closer to the bottom of the Poggio descent. To be considered by the organisers is that this year Simon Gerrans was the strongest.

With Milan San-Remo in the bag, GreenEdge has now hoisted themselves up into the credibility rankings. Nothing the other teams have done close to the win achieved by Simon on the Italian Riviera last weekend.

While the team can relax a little, the peloton is now approaching the heat of the Spring classics and the expression “you’re only as good as your last race” will cruelly be echoed.

In a closing note, I see that GreenEDGE has pleasingly maintained the momentum post Simon’s victory with Swiss rider Michael Albasini winning a couple of stages and claiming the leaders jersey at the Volta a Catalunya.

This is second in a new series of columns for The Roar by Phil Anderson, a former Australian professional racing cyclist and the first non-European to wear the yellow jersey at the Tour de France.