March 22/15 14:05 pm - Milan - Sanremo

Posted by Editoress on 03/22/15
 

Germany's John Degenkolb won the 106th Milano - Sanremo, beating last year's winner, the Norwegian Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha), and Australian Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE).

With a huge sprint during the final 200m of the 293km Milan-Sanremo, John Degenkolb raced to a huge victory at the end of the opening marker of the season in Italy.

The race came down to a small bunch sprint after the ascents of the Cipressa and the Poggio, and after being supported by Tom Dumoulin in the final stages, Degenkolb timed his move perfectly in the finishing straight to take the win in Sanremo.

How it happened

The race got underway with the usual early breakaway, with 11 riders pulling clear in the early stages to spend the day out front. Their lead quickly grew to over ten minutes but the peloton wasn’t letting the lead get out of hand and they quickly brought it under control.

Team Giant-Alpecin headed into the race with a clear plan – to look after John and keep him as fresh as possible until when the fireworks kicked off on the final two climbs of the 293km race. They did this perfectly and with the race back together ahead of the Cipressa John was in a good position near the front of the bunch with support in numbers.

The front group continued to shrink over the Cipressa as the attacks came and the pace continued to rise. At the bottom of the descent two riders pulled clear and spent the following kilometres building a 30 second advantage. Up the Poggio their advantage started to fall and over the top the front of the race was back together once again.

Degenkolb had Tom Dumoulin for support ahead of the Poggio and down the other side on the run in to the finish. On the final flat run-in to the finish, the pace was raised by Katusha once again with last year’s winner Alexander Kristoff in second wheel, but Degenkolb was where he needed to be in fourth wheel waiting for his moment.

As Kristoff opened up the sprint Degenkolb followed and then made his move just when needed to pull through for a convincing win by 3/4 of a bike length.

Team Giant-Alpecin  press release

Degenkolb
“It was pure emotion. For a moment I couldn’t believe it. 50m before the line I definitely thought I would not be able to beat Alex [Kristoff] in the sprint because he started really fast. But I kept believing in myself. There was still a difference in power and speed, but just before the line he died and I came across first. It was pure emotion, and I thought about last year, when I had tears in my eyes because I had the biggest disappointment in cycling in my life [Note he finished 39th at 1:54”]. This year I had tears in my eyes because I had won. It’s cool.”



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