Will Peter Sagan be able to finally win his first Milan-San Remo today? For years always on top of the underdogs, the three-time Slovakian world champion has always missed the target: in 2013 he saw his success blown away, burned in the last meters of the race in 2012 by the German Gerarl Ciolek while last year it was Mikal Kwiatkowski who mocked him. Sagan once again appears at the start from Milan as the super favorite in the first classic monument of the season, which will also baptize the debut of a sort of football Var in cycling to monitor any improprieties during the almost 300 km race and punish them in real time.
Technological innovation aside, Sanremo will probably repeat the usual script with Poggio acting as referee of the last decisive selection: last year it was Sagan himself who unleashed the tussle with a masterful draw that seemed to have given him the win if there hadn't been a fresher Kwiatkowski, capable of getting back on the wheel of the world champion and then beating him almost at the photo finish. And the Pole from Team Sky, recent winner of the Tirreno-Adriatico, is indicated, in the event of a few arrivals, as the most dangerous opponent for Sagan. But the two, Sagan and Kwiatkowski, will in turn have to watch out for a large group of pretenders to success starting with the Frenchman Arnaud Demare and the Norwegian Alexandre Kristoff who have already won at the Sanremo finish line.
Also keep an eye out for the Frenchman Julien Alaphilippe, always looking for a success that will comfort the promises placed in him by the transalpines. Then there are the usual Belgians, although not brilliant in this start to the season such as Greg Van Avermaet and Philippe Gilbert, who in the rainy northern climate that promises to be this Saturday will find their familiar terrain in the Northern classifications. In the event of the arrival of a larger group – absent Kittel, Gaviria and Degenkolb – not a few chances are also granted to Elia Viviani, the Italian who with Gianni Moscon appears at the moment among the most tonic of ours, and who certainly the final bends of the Poggio should suffer less than other pure sprinters in the race such as André Greipel, Caleb Ewan and the timeless Mark Cavendish, who came out rather battered from the Tirreno-Adriatico.
