With Milan-San Remo, the first monument of the season is on the menu for the classic car hunters tomorrow. A year ago, after a cleverly driven finale, Gerald Ciolek (MTN-Qhubeka) prevailed in front of Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing). For the man from Cologne, the race, which was held under extremely adverse conditions, was the greatest success of his career.
It remains to be seen whether Ciolek will be part of the final again this year. You can trust him. However, this year he is starting again as an outsider, even though he is equipped with starting number one. Helpers like Linus Gerdemann and Andreas Stauff can't change that. Rather, it is important to pay attention to other drivers.
Favorites
John Degenkolb could follow in Ciolek's footsteps. The Frankfurt driver recently drove a strong Paris-Nice. A stage win, the overall lead at times and the fact that the driver with the best points was in the jersey speak volumes.
Peter Sagan finally wants to win his first big classic this year. At Strade Bianche he drove confidently and brought about the decision in the final. However, he found his master in Michal Kwiatkowski. A few days later he won the third stage of Tirreno-Adriatico and celebrated his 60th professional victory. Last year he animated the final in San Remo, possibly wasting too much energy. This year he should have learned from that mistake.
Philippe Gilbert (BMC) is the tip of ex-professional Mario Cipollini. And the Italian knows what it takes to cheer on Via Roma. Indeed, Gilbert has had some solid performances so far this year. He himself is hot for a win in San Remo and should try his luck at Poggio at the latest.
Ian Stannard (Sky) already won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad this year. Should the weather on Sunday be similarly bad, then the tall Briton is definitely a candidate for the podium. Last year he was one of the assets in the final and this time he will probably be the driver of his team who gets to fly the flag.
Sylvain Chavanel caused a stir at the end of last year when he switched to the Swiss second division IAM. At Paris-Nice he was one of the most active riders and although he was denied a stage win he underlined his current good form. He was also in the final in 2013 and is always good for an attack or a surprise. With Heinrich Haussler and Roger Kluge, he also has two strong helpers who can also shine in the final.
Fabian Cancellara knows what it means to win in San Remo. In 2008 he lived up to his favorite role. Last year he was third in the final and should be eager to test his form again this year for the monuments of Flanders and Roubaix.
Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), who is in Belgium for family reasons, will not be at the start.
Route
The organizers have a lot of work to do with route planning this year. First the Pompeiana climb had to be removed from the route, which RCS Sport had originally planned to use to make the race more difficult, then landslides along the Via Aurelia bothered them.
Now the route is set. At its core, it is similar to everyone from 2007. In total, the riders have to cover 294 kilometers and climb six climbs. The highest is the Passo del Turchino, i.e. the pass where the race was interrupted in 2013 due to snowfall. Capo Mele, Capo Cervo and Capo Berta will follow later, before things really get going at Cipressa and Poggio.