DThis bill will probably remain open forever. For a while, Peter Sagan was considered to be difficult to defeat in those difficult one-day races where his enormous abilities came into their own. When the classics were about wearing down your opponents in man-to-man duels at high speed and then leaving them in the final with his sprinting skills. The Slovakian star won the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, and three world championship titles speak for themselves.
Only at Milan-Sanremo in March, also a monument of cycling, did he simply not want to win. “You can’t control so many things in this race, things can be decided in milliseconds. It’s always all or nothing,” says the aging star (Team Totalenergies), who will end his glittering road career at the end of the year.
Abstruse length of almost 300 kilometers
Nine times Sagan reached the top ten, five times he was fourth, twice second. One of them was at the legendary 2013 edition, when snow almost brought the race to a standstill and the drivers were finally loaded onto buses and taken down to the Ligurian coast. At that time, Sagan was surprisingly defeated in the sprint by German Gerald Ciolek. John Degenkolb provided another German victory three years later on the Via Roma in the center of Sanremo, which was also once a domain of Erik Zabel (four wins).
In any case, the coup in the snow race of 2013 was a unique triumph for the Cologne-based Ciolek in a race that is also unique in the cycling calendar. If only because of the abstruse length of almost 300 kilometers. The Italians call it “La Primavera”. The journey into spring begins in the Piedmontese plain, where nature is still sparse in winter.
On the route, which has only slightly changed since 1905, landscapes blooming in springtime await behind the Turchino Pass. Some dismiss Milan-Sanremo as too long, too slow, too boring. In fact, six hours out of seven of the race nothing much happens, the breakaways doing their job rather dutifully, knowing they will never make it to the finish in central Sanremo.
But when the coast comes into view, the peloton traditionally heads for one of the most compelling finals of the racing year. The tempo increases, as does the tension. Before the pent-up hustle and bustle unloads on the two famous final climbs just before the finish, Cipressa and Poggio, which are actually more hills but are executioners on this race day.
The mere fact that the superstars Tadej Pogacar, Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel and Julian Allaphilippe are all at the start (with ambitions to win) promises a show that will begin at the latest at the foot of the 3.7-kilometre ascent to the Poggio.
“Milan-Sanremo is more of a lottery. Everything is decided in the last five kilometers so you don’t really have time to correct mistakes or turn things around,” says 33-year-old Sagan. Particularly appealing: Depending on how the race goes, climbers, classic specialists or sprinters can make the decisive move in the last few kilometers.
Last year Pogacar, the outstanding man so far in the first weeks of the 2023 season, launched four attacks, but in the end his Slovenian compatriot Matej Mohoric won after an almost breakneck descent down the hairpin bends of Poggio. Milan – Sanremo is considered the easiest of the five monuments, but the most difficult to win. Check with Peter Sagan.
