Milan-San Remo, once known as the sprinters’ Classic, has turned its back on the peloton’s fast men.
Not for the first time in its history, La Classica will be adding an extra climb to its parcours. While the new climb was meant to make its debut at this year’s race, it won’t appear until next year as vital roadworks on the new course were unable to be completed in time due to poor weather.
It is hoped the extra difficulty will add variety to San Remo’s podium, which has been decidedly sprinter-centric over the years.
Since 2000 only Filippo Pozzato (2006), Fabian Cancellara (2008) and Australia’s Simon Gerrans (2012) have managed to outwit the flat-track bullies. But is the dearth of non-sprinters winning the race really a concern?
After all, you wouldn’t see organisers of the Tour de France take climbs out of their race to give the sprinters a chance at the overall. So why should sprinters be sacrificed in the one Classic that best suits them?
It is something the organisers of Milan-San Remo have wrestled with for years. Once upon a time the Passo del Turchino was the main obstacle facing the riders. It came too far from the finish to be a really decisive aspect of the race so the Poggio was added in 1960.
The Cipressa followed in 1982, and then Le Manie in 2008.
But the sprinters still won.
So in 2015, the five-kilometre-long Pompeiana will be added to La Primavera’s collection of climbs. Could this be the straw that finally breaks the sprinters’ backs?
Former winner Mark Cavendish seems to think so. He’d already opted out of this year’s race, thinking his dreams of adding a second San Remo title to his palmares had been shattered. But he was just as quick to jump back in on learning the extra climb had been withdrawn.
It’s a shame the organisers feel obliged to introduce a more challenging route (as if riding 300 kilometres at race speed is not hard enough). It is almost as if they have forgotten the prestige the fast men have brought to their event over the years
In more recent times names such as Eric Zabel, Mario Cipollini, Paolo Bettini, Oscar Freire, Alessandro Petacchi and Cavendish have graced the top step of the podium, along with Matthew Goss, who became the first Australian to win the spring Classic.
The race has been no less endearing for its sprint finishes.
Who could forget Cavendish’s thrilling chase down of Heinrich Haussler in the 2009 edition? It was the narrowest of last-gasp victories and one sure to still to be giving Haussler nightmares.
2011 was special for Australians as Matthew Goss became our first winner, while last year’s victor, Gerald Ciolek, battled not only blizzard-like conditions and the very real threat of hypothermia, but also Peter Sagan and Fabian Cancellara to record a very popular victory for the punchy MTN Qhubeka team.
What a shame it would have been if extra hills had robbed us of any of those victories.
Sitting back and watching the sprinters trying to hang on grimly as the peloton rockets over the Poggio always generates excitement. It is an eagerly anticipated moment and provides the race with one of its high points and something not often seen in any other race – a genuine contest between the all-rounders, the climbers and the fast men.
Just look at this year for instance. We have Cavendish, who is desperately keen to claim another title, up against Vincenzo Nibali, who said this race is one of his early season goals. Either of them could win it, despite them being poles apart as riders.
But alas, this sort of contest is destined to become a thing of the past, with the changes to the course being better suited to the likes of Sagan or Cancellara rather than a pure sprinter.
Boo, hiss, I say. Those blokes would have been a chance anyway.
All the addition of another climb does is narrow the field of possible winners and take away some of the suspense.
How that can be good for the race has got me flummoxed.
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