[UCI World Tour] Milano-Sanremo 2021

Milano-Sanremo

Changes

Due to lessening interest I've decided to do fewer cycling events. I'm probably gonna stick to just the five monuments and the Tour de France. I might also double up the giveaways with the Formula One events as I am slowly running out of keys.

How it works

Predict who is going to win the race; that's all. :)

Race Preview

It's been an amazing cycling season already with some real fun early spring classics in Belgium, an amazing win by Mathieu van der Poel in Strade Bianchi, Paris - Nice with a final day no one could have predicted, and more amazing wins in the Tireno by Mathieu (including a ludicrous escape), Wout van Aert, Julian Alaphilippe, and Tadej Pogacar.

The rest of the season should be just as entertaining with the Tour de France and the Olympics a week later bringing everything to a frenzy. Though I'm not quite convinced the Olympics will actually be held, or maybe a number of countries will decide not to compete.

On to La Classicissima di primavera. It used to be that the distance (300 km) and the Cipressa and Poggio climbs at the end made the group of possible winners more selective. But these days almost all sprinters have no problems with this; Arnaud Démare is a former winner and people like Alexander Kristoff (also a former winner), Michael Matthews, and Sonny Colbrelli will feature in the mix. Unfortunately Peter Sagan seems to have lost his form, maybe he's still suffering the effects of the Covid infection he got in February.

Though the climbs might not be an issue, that final descent sure is. Unfortunately I can easily see some very nasty crashes happening this year, considering there might be a large group of contenders who all want to be at the front when we go down the Poggio. Those hairpins are quite tricky and with rock on one side and houses on the other, a crash is not going to be painless.

I agree with the Pez Preview when it comes to the favorites; it might just be the same three as in the Tour of Flanders last year (Mathieu, Wout & Julian). That said; Quickstep have their wolfpack as they do every year and they can afford to try a lot and always have Sam Bennet in reserve. And Mathieu... I fear he's going to go crazy again and escape 50 or 60 km before the finish; can he keep pulling off these super human feats?

Sites
Official Site
Wikipedia

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