I had dinner with a team mate on Saturday night in Melbourne. We had knocked out a good 95km each a ride and decided to have a bite to eat in the evening, because we don’t spend enough time together as it is.
We enjoyed a great pizza and a nice bottle of wine and along with my wife tried to solve the many problems of the world.
Failing to do so we pulled the pin at 9pm and I was home in bed by 9:30. We decided to do a weather check at 7:15 on Sunday morning as the weather was looking a tad wild.
Message comes through at 7:15: ‘Check the weather, 60kmhr southerly and trailing rain. Stuff that. Back to bed’. I stuck my melon outside and looked at the trees bracing themselves against the wind.
Instead, I made a coffee and watched a Super Rugby replay again.
How the 180 odd riders that lined up for Milan San Remo is nearly beyond me.
Grey sky and very cold conditions greeted the riders as they arrived at Milan’s Piazza Castello.
Light rain began to fall as the riders departed but before long the temp dropped even further and heavy snow began to fall.
The weather was so bad for parts of the race that instead of riding over the Turchino and La Maine climbs, the riders climbed into team buses and went over the mountain which cut out some 47km.
I felt like a sook and any chance of ever being known as a true hard man disappeared.
In its 104th year, this is unheard of. Many riders, including Belgium hard man Tom Boonen did not get off the bus and had some stern words for the race organisers as proceedings re-commenced.
What. The. #MilanoSanremo . In the bus after neutralization. So. Cold. twitter.com/taylorphinney/…
— Taylor Phinney (@taylorphinney) March 17, 2013
The chances of being a hard man re-kindled in me after Tomeke pulled the pin!
The big names on everyone’s lips did not disappoint and the final stages of the race were exceptional.
Silvain Chavanel (OPQS) is a chance rider and loves to go on the attack. He did just that with Sky’s Ian Stannard on the Cipressa.
Fabian Cancellara, who was always going to have some impact on the race responded and bridged across with Sagan on the decent of the Poggio.
Gerald Ciolek (MTN-Qhubeka) and Luca Paolini (Katusha) also bridged across and caught the leaders with 4km to go. Stannard counter-attacked and Sagan led the chase and then took off on his own.
Cancellara gave chase and all six came back together until Stannard attacked again with 1.8km to go. The six came back together with 1km to go but the sight of Taylor Phinney (BMC) ripping across the open ground ignited the sprint.
Sagan went too early and Ciolek grabbed his wheel and came off to take the win by half a wheel.
Ciolek rode a great race. He let the other riders take the lead on the sharp, steep descent and kept enough in reserve to take out the sprint. MTN-Qhubeka is a pro continental team and was a wild card entry for the race.
The Pro continental teams are a level below the top 19 teams that line-up for the Grand Tours but still have some very good riders among this level.
I am not sure how much Sagan knew about Ciolek but perhaps he thought he was clearly the most dominant sprinter of the six as aside from Ciolek, the other riders are mainly diesel’s and chance riders.
The bewildered look on Sagan’s face when he got pipped indicates he certainly underestimated his opponent.
Cancellara took third and you have to feel for him as he is always racing for second unless he gets away, which is extremely rare as he is so heavily marked.
While Sagan will be disappointed I am confident he will take out a Classic this year. He was top 10 in all of them last year and he has an exceptional mix of capabilities – great sprinter, climbs well, descends exceptionally well and handles incline sprints better than Mark Cavendish, Andre Griepel and Matt Goss.
The ‘phenom’ would be one of the best bike handlers in the peloton. He is also a hard man and that is what it takes to win a classic.
However, don’t ask me to bet against Tom Boonen in the Paris-Roubaix though – he will still be the guy to beat.
Hopefully Cancellara will be there as these two against one another is a delight for the senses.
Taylor Phinney also rode a strong race and you can’t help but think after his exceptional Tour de France in 2012 he will be a real threat in 2014 Tour de France (assuming Cadel steps aside as the top GC rider which appears likely). Porte has also shown great form after a very robust performance taking out Paris-Nice. I expect Sky to give him a top GC spot in 2014 as well.
The cobbled classics kick off this weekend with Gent-Wevelgem.
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