After the Tirreno-Adriatico (won by Nairo Quintana) and the Paris-Nice (success by Richie Porte), great cycling enters the heart of the season with the Milan-Sanremo, the very classic spring race which since 2006 has not seen a victory Italian. The last to triumph was Filippo Pozzato in an all-Italian sprint ahead of Alessandro Petacchi and Luca Paolini. Since then only foreign successes with Oscar Freire's brace (2007 and 2010) interspersed with the triumphs of Fabian Cancellara (2008) and Mark Cavendish (2009). In 2011 and 2012 it was the turn of the Australians Matthew Gross and Simon Gerrans; in 2013 it was the German Gerald Ciolek who prevailed over Sagan and Cancellara. The last winner, who will start this Sunday with the number 1, was the Norwegian of Katusha, Alexander Kristoff. And it is Kristoff himself who enjoys the favors of the bookmakers who, on the eve of the Italian monument race, rate him 6 on a par with Peter Sagan, the athlete also sponsored in the predictions by Davide Cassani, the national team coach.
The eternally placed Slovakian broke his fast by finally winning a stage at the Tirreno-Adriatico, a victory that served to appease an enraged Oleg Tinkov, the Russian tycoon who owns Saxo-Tinkoff, Contador's team, who wanted him in his team overpaying him but who until a week ago was anything but satisfied with the performance of the acrobatic runner. Immediately behind the pairing favorite, there are the usual suspects: first of all Cavendish (given at 7) and Cancellara (10). The Briton, back from an unfortunate season due to repeated falls, returns to Sanremo after having deserted it last year, fearing that the organizers also wanted to include the Pompeiana ascent. As for Cancellara, who triumphed in the short final time trial of the Tirreno-Adriatico, there is a great desire to return to the top step of the podium after he has achieved three second places and one third in the last four editions. But the foreign army can count on other pawns to put the seal on the finish line placed again in the historic via Roma, the one that saw, for example, the seven successes of Eddy Merckx, a record that is difficult to beat. The names? There is only the risk of forgetting some of them: John Degenkolb, Nacer Bouhanni, Philippe Gilbert, Michael Matthews, Van Avermaert, the Englishman Ben Swift, Andre Greipel and again Michael Kwiatkowski's rainbow jersey. Of the great sprinters out there, only Marcel Kittel, winner of four stages in the last Tour, is missing.
Of the fantastic four instead, that is to say the poker of rulers of the great stage races, from which sparks and epic clashes are expected at the Giro and above all at the Tour, Sanremo will see only Vincenzo Nibali at the starting line. The Italian champion has always given a little thought to the Classicissima after the third place obtained in 2012. But what worries the winner of the last Tour, more than the state of form, is the situation of his team, Astana, which after the repeated cases of doping risk having her World Tour license removed from the UCI and being expelled from major races. A disturbing shadow over a season that should be a beautiful spot for cycling with the big four – Froome, Contador, Quintana and Nibali – battling each other over the Alps and Pyrenees for the yellow jersey. It would really be a mortal sin for cycling if doping still ruins everything.
