The first of cycling's five monuments is raced every year between the capital of Lombardy, Milan, and the Ligurian coast, San Remo, not far from France. It is the Milan-San Remothe race whose glory puts your name forever in the spring, a word that in cycling is written in capital letters.
They say it's "the easiest but the hardest".. They say so because it goes fast, without great orographic difficulties, but its end is electric and sometimes a roulette in which the forecasts usually fail.
Its profile is part of the history of cycling forever, from the Sforcesco Castle in Milan a peloton of the best in the world crosses the Lombardy plains to go down to the coast via the Turchino, which this year could not be crossed due to works. Once there, the winding with the sea in the background will be the constant, with several forays inland, will be for the Cipresa and the well-known three capes, the Mele, Cervo and Berta, before the final selection, a tack to our eyes, but brutal after almost three hundred kilometers in the legs, called Poggio, from the top of which to the finish line is only a breath away.
It's true that it's not a very hard race," he says.But to win or be in front, you have to be in good shape," says 2014 winner Alexander Kristoff of UAE Team Emirates. You need to be strong for the final climbs and not lose your place on the Poggio and be able to take risks on the descent.".
Kristoff, among the chosen ones
San Remo is a piece coveted by the all-time greats. Eddy Merckx conquered it seven times.one more than Constance Girargdengo, possibly the first great legend of Italian cycling, you have to go back to the twenties to find him, and three more than Gino Bartali, the pious Tuscan, and Erik Zabel, the infallible German who lost an edition, the 2004, to celebrate the triumph prematurely. In that final stroke of the kidney, the Cantabrian Oscar Freire would win the first of the three San Remo that are in his palmares.
"I made my debut in San Remo in 2012The following year I had to experience that edition shortened because of the snow and the cold. We had to stop on the first section because of a heavy snowfall, get on the buses, get warm and continue to the coast. It was a terrible day, cold and rainy at the end. I was able to finish eighth that day, an important achievement in that extreme weather," Kristoff recalls.
The following year saw his triumph in the mythical Via Roma. It was one of those editions in which the fast man had to get through the final climbs, hidden, but not far from the front, in order to get the wheel out on the final straight, a task that is not at all easy.
That was one of my best victories, without a doubt, and I still remember it fondly today," says the Norwegian from UAE Team Emirates. As a sprinter, it's one of the great classics I'm eligible to win. and to stay in the top three contenders is very nice.
For Kristoff, that victory in San Remo "It opened the best cycle of my sporting life, won over the months in the Tour de France and other races. Although I had already achieved some things then, that victory was very special"..
In 2021 he expects "a very tough race, as always it will be a battle between those who want to arrive in the breakaway, looking for luck from the Cipresa, and those who prefer the sprint finish. We are clear that we have to show our cards in both scenarios".
UAE Team Emirates' most important Nordic rider is one of the most important riders in the peloton at the moment.In addition to that San Remo, we can add a Tour of Flanders, won the following year, a Ghent-Wevelgem, which he won with UAE Team Emirates two seasons ago, stages in the Tour de France ... among others to reach 79 victories, given the fact that the Tour won by Tadej Pogacar began with Kristoff winning in Nice.
A Tour that UAE Team Emirates started and finished in yellow.
PhotosBettiniPhoto / Fizza Photo
