The last great classic of last season, the Giro di Lombardia, ended with the victory of Oliver Zaugg. The first great classic of the new season, the Milan-San Remo, saw the success of Simon Gerrans, Australian like Matthew Goss, winner in 2011. It cannot be said that both Zaugg, a completely unknown Swiss, and Gerrans – a national title conquered this year was still the best of his palmarès – they belong to the top tiers of world cycling but, unlike Lombardy, deserted by all the big names, the Sanremo raced today offered exciting moments, all enclosed in the handful of kilometers that divide the Poggio from the finish line. Moments of great cycling offered above all by Vincenzo Nibali, fresh winner of the Tirreno-Adriatico, who took off in the final bends, gaining a few seconds on the group of the best. Bravo Gerrans who, unique, managed to keep up with him. Then the eagerly awaited Fabian Cancellara entered the scene, setting off in search of the climber from Liquigas and the Australian with one of his deadly progressions. In the dive towards the sea of Sanremo Cancellara and Nibali, with Gerrans always behind, defended their small advantage with their teeth. The pursuers led by Oscar Freire, who dreamed of hitting the target for the fourth time, were about a hundred meters behind. But there was nothing they could do for them.
Cancellara was superb, always in the lead pulling like a train, an immense effort that the Swiss champion paid off in the last few centimeters by being reassembled by Gerrans. Nibali, generous but slower than the other two, finished third, confirming all the good things he had shown in the Tirreno-Adriatico. For him, there are all the conditions for a season to be lived to the fullest. Among the favorites on the eve of disappointing most of all was precisely the most predicted, that Mark Cavendish, who soon surrendered in the rainbow jersey, caught in a sudden crisis on the Salitella delle Manie. Better than him (and Alessandro Petacchi, who was immediately out of the running) did Philippe Gilbert, who appeared in the second half, but a fall on the Cipressa descent compromised the Belgian rider's race. Dignified the race of Filippo Pozzato, sixth and first of the Italians. Also good was that of Peter Sagan, who finished fourth, teammate of Nibali (and of Ivan Basso, who is absent today), a Slovakian with splendid promises. For Cancellara and for all the other big names disappointed by Sanremo, an appointment for a prompt revenge on the roads of the great classics of the North.
