Finally, we have Milan-Sanremo. I hope pedale.forcetta is ready to shoot some pictures, especially black and white because it will be cold and possibly wet. Throw in a little wind and a race of this distance will weed out the less hardy. Recently, but not too recently, this race would be won out of a decent size field sprint. And yet, besides Fabs winning in 2008 it does come down to a sprint finish of some size. That race was setting up for a field sprint when Cancellara bolted and no one could catch him. The solo charge to the finish just doesn’t seem to work here. It is such an interesting race because the finish is unlike any of the other monuments. Moreno Argentin lost the race because he was not as good as descender as Kelly. Getting down the Cipressa and Poggio well is not easy. The descents are tight narrow Italian roads, hairpin turns, madness. Fabs and Sagan are two excellent descenders and Sagan has a killer sprint. NIbali just won Terreno. Thor has recovered. Boonen is back with Cavendish, on the same team! Gilbert is wearing the rainbow jersey. Andy Schleck has pre-dropped out. God Damnit, if you are going to get up at some weird hour of the night to watch a race this year, this is it people.
An American has never won one of cycling’s monuments and Sunday’s race does not seem to be where it is going to happen. Tyler Farrar would have to latch onto a special train and surely Cancellara will not be towing people to the line this year. The odds of Australian riders winning the last two editions were very long but it demonstrates how exciting and unpredictable this race is.
Here is the incomplete start list, it will be updated when available. No Delgados, no whining, the betting window is now open. Get you picks in before the countdown timer goes to zero at midnight Pacific Time. The winner of this event is awarded the MSR comment badge for the remainder of the season.
Here is a little video from last year, interesting more for the behind the scenes action and the amount of bleeped out cursing.
[vsp_results id=”22700″/]
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
@Deakus
ya you've got that right, they all need to work for this one.
@Deakus
Yeah, nit a fan of his but at least he stuck around for the ride. Nibbles, Goss, Boonen, etc saw the finish from a warm team bus.
@Frank - That may be a new record for getting the results up! Chapeau!
Also a great effort from MiniPhinney to come in 7th. Give the kid some more experience and he'll do big things.
Wow and how about Taylor Phinney coming up on that group at the end there's no quit in that guy.
This is from the cyclingnews ticker -
"The BMC rider coming back was key there because all the riders in the lead group looked over their shoulders and then opened up the sprint. Ciolek kept his head though and waited behind Sagan."
@Sauterelle
I wasn't attempting to explain anything for Boonen. I was merely commenting on the conditions as they appear to me and how I would choose having to ride in those conditions. Road riding in those conditions is suicidal here in the mountains a far as I'm concerned. On snowy days, I just grab the mountain bike and head for Pisgah Forest and ride there. To each his or her own.
-Dinan
A fun race to watch. Great effort by Phinney!
@Skip
Second that. One huge benefit of being a stupid old codger is that life often becomes a cornucopia of opportunities to learn. I didn't even enter the VSP this time, but I couldn't help noticing that the participants were using all kinds of creative - and funny - nicknames for their riders/picks, so the input for this event would seem to be all over the place - and yet, mere minutes after the race result goes live, the result of the VSP is on-line. Respect, first and foremost - but also utter bafflement: How the hell do you do that?? (I'm imagining that you process all the creative entries (manually? algorithm?) so that all the picks are present in a standardised spreadsheet of sorts, which is then held up, as it were, to the race results - but that would be a lot of work, surely? (Perhaps it's not as complicated as that? But whatever the 'trick': Hat, indeed!)
HUGE ride from Stannard. I enjoyed that a lot.
Boonen should have ridden for the team and supported Cav, he didn't have to contest the race. Dropping out following the restart would have been a better move if the conditions were still that bad. If he wins PR this will take the shine off of it.
Wow! Lots of Boonen bashing. I thought I'd never see the day.
1. It's pretty easy to criticize from the couch.
2. Boonen's targeting a pretty important week in the not-so-distant future; MSR was always a long shot.
3. He's been hurt and sick this winter. Why risk 2?
4. He gets paid to race his bike, not risk life and limb.
5. What help was he going to provide Chavanel?
6. Getting in the bus today does not dampen any performance at PR. Apples and oranges. Completely.
7. Damage to the Belgian reputation?? I don't even know what that means.
I'm a strong adherent/admirer of Rule V, but there's a danger we lose sight of its value if we just jabber Rule V at every turn. These are great athletes and hard men (by definition, in having created the opportunity for themselves to be invited to line up at the start of a pro race). If you can't see that, it's best to keep your fingers off the keyboard while you sit on the couch...
@frank