Velominati Super Prestige: Milano-Sanremo 2015
Le Primavera has arrived. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 2015 Velominati Super Prestige. It’s been a long quiet winter of very little cycling news, little racing and barely a scandal. This Sunday marks the real beginning of the season for us cycling fanatics.
The true beauty of MSR, that despite its length, only on the descent of the Poggio and the run in to Sanremo does the race really show itself. No one is going to solo away in the last forty kms. No one is going to drop everybody on the Poggio and ride away to arrive a minute ahead on the Via Roma. The descent off the Poggio is its own race. And it’s the reason inept descenders like Frank Schleck are not pulling on the shoe covers this Sunday. Getting down to the Via Roma at the front requires some bravado. It will be a sprint of some fashion; maybe one, maybe two, maybe twenty. One is going to have to watch 290 kms of racing to understand the last three.
There is talk of rain on the coast. Rain is not required for Milano-Sanremo. It is for Paris-Roubaix. Here is a provisional start list. Be specific about your picks, just entering Chavanel can get you in a spot of bother your whining will not get you out of. And the betting window closes when the countdown timer goes to zero so refresh your page to know for sure. Or better yet, get your picks in early, like your taxes.
This 2015 Milano-Sanremo will be a good one. It is a very open field with many viable winners. Getting on the Big Board early won’t be easy this Sunday. Whatever OCD ritual you need to do to get good picks in, do it correctly, many times, then one more time for good luck.
The VSP is a race. It bestows some bragging rights on those that do well. Feel free to mock others picks, just acknowledge it when they drop you like a sack of nails. If you are supreme, omniscient and your god is a cruel (they all are) yet fair god you may win a Velominati oven mitt. But if you are supreme (supremely lucky) over the whole VSP season, then dear reader, you are going to win something special. These are the prizes for the overall 2015 season. Due to the fact that we are unable to recognize the passage of time in a meaningful way, we have yet to complete the prize list, but here is a teaser:
First place– Something big and awesome, to be determined.
Second Place– A Café Roubaix/Velominati wheel-set, Chris King hubs, hand built by professional wheelsmith and Velominatus Dan Richter.
Third Place– A Velominati kit: jersey, bibs, and cap.
The VSP generator has been rebuilt with new o-rings, auxiliary pull-start and tube amplifiers. The specifics of the VSP can be found on its slightly out of date page. Let’s do this.
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Greg Van Avermaet on the Poggio
@Pedale.Forchetta
That is saying a lot. When the TDF winner is sitting on a dropped Gorilla in MSR, someone must have been screwing off all winter. The helicopter footage showed Greipel killing himself to stay with the lead group on the Poggio, further down. He is a tough guy.
@Pedale.Forchetta
Killer photos, Pedale, as usual. I’m glad you were there. Have you ridden those climbs? It would be fun to ride the last part of MSR, all the climbs and descents and run-in to Sanremo.
@Pedale.Forchetta
A familiar face from the sprint finish at Omloop last year.
@Gianni
I’ve ridden the Amateurs Milano-Sanremo 3 times and from my point of view is not a flat race!
It was the only race where I mounted the bottle cages on my bike, of course I threw away the bottles before the Poggio…
Superb photos, Pedale! Thanks for sharing. Oh wow, the mighty Primavera even forced our Italian camel to need bidons on the steed. That puts the difficulty of the race in perspective!
Is the amateur M-SR also 300km? I hope they shorten the route for guys not getting paid.
@Pedale.Forchetta
Thank you so much for sharing the photo’s.
@Pedale.Forchetta
Thanks Mate. Great pics as per usual.
I was fortunate enough to stay in San Remo for one night last summer and I was able to ride a little bit the following morning. Its a stunning landscape in that part of Italy. An idyllic coastal zone rising abruptly to sharp green hills. Existentially, you could move your life to the Liguria without cause for regret. I rode less than 50k that morning but followed the coast out of San Remo for a bit before returning over the Cipressa and Poggio. It seems like a dream now. During the descent of the Poggio I’m sure I heard tifosi screaming my name…
Neither climb feels particularly steep. I immediately imagined the way this invokes Rule #10. Ergo an “easy” climb can be ridden harder and faster. Especially under race conditions.. So today I checked the 2015 MSR Strava files…
Kwiatowski :- https://www.strava.com/activities/272474122
The stats are mind boggling: 290k in 7 hours @ 42 kph. Never mind the weather…
Oh and the Cipressa and Poggio? Take both Strava KOMs. They’re only 4%. Nevermind the 260k lead up. Hit them at 33kph…wwwow
@Ron
Yes, also the amateurs one is full length, I still remember the first time… That morning I said to my mom: Vado a Sanremo e torno questa sera… (go to Sanremo, I’ll be back this evening…).
@Harminator
The hills are definitely easy it’s the mileage that break your legs, I managed to arrive to the Turchino with an average speed of 41km/h but on his slopes of 3% I had my legs like concrete…
@Harminator
Wow, that’s awesome that you’ve ridden there. What a dream, for sure. And yep, I think we’d all have tifosi voices in our head. Very cool, what a nice place to ride!
And yes, the speeds are truly stunning. Whenever you’re feeling strong, one peek at the PRO numbers and it’s an instantly humbling of the ama-Guns.
Pedale.Forchetta – yikes, the whole distance! I don’t know if I’d have the nerve to sign up for that, much less the stamina to ride it. Awesome that you’ve done it three times.