Julian Alaphilippe headlines our squad for this weekend’s appointment.
The first Monument of the season is scheduled this Saturday, and just like last year it won’t start from Lombardy’s capital. Pavia, lying some 40 kilometers from Milano, is where the riders will gather early in the morning to kick off what will be a 288km journey to the sunny Ligurian coast.
This long procession will come to life inside the last 30 kilometers, when those wanting to drop the sprinters will have a first opportunity of doing so on the slopes of the Cipressa. From its top only 12 kilometers remain until the Poggio, the legendary climb of Milano-Sanremo, where some of the race’s most unforgettable moments were written. And if a small group is still together after the 3.6km hill, there’s always the technical descent left where some of the riders can try to make the difference before the iconic finish on the Via Roma.
Winner of the event in 2019, Julian Alaphilippe will be at the start of the Italian Monument for the seventh time in his career, together with a strong Soudal Quick-Step squad that is set to include also Kasper Asgreen, Mattia Cattaneo, Josef Cerny, Gianni Moscon, Casper Pedersen and Luke Lamperti, the young American neo-pro who gets to make his debut in a Monument after a very impressive start to the season.
“We will start Milano-Sanremo with a lot of motivation. We know we aren’t the main favourites, but this doesn’t mean we won’t try to do our best to get a good result. The race is six kilometers shorter than last year, but that doesn’t change anything and the action should once again kick off in the final hour of the race. The riders we have at the start are determined to give their all out there and we’ll just have to be confident and wait to see how things will pan out after seven hours”, said sports director Davide Bramati.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
