Oscarito takes his third Sanremo victory:

This year edition of Milano-Sanremo was really thrilling,especially in the last 30 kms.La Classicissima in fact is always a very nervous race,because the peloton is always divided between guys who have to attack if they want to win and guys who dream of winning the race after an exciting sprint.And because of this division,of course,every team has its own strategy.Someone has just one sprinter,some other teams have both a sprinter and a possible attacker,other teams have just some attackers,other teams don't have anyone.
The weather,who could have helped sprinters like Boonen and Hushvod and attackers like Cancellara or,say,Nibali,wasn't that awful,although it was actually worse than usual for a Milano-Sanremo.On the Turchino climb it was foggy and rainy,but luckily then it didn't rain anymore.
After the gallery at the top of the Turchino the Brazilian rider Murillo Fischer had to retire because of a broken collarbone.
After 202 kms of race,on Le Mànie climb,the early breakaway formed by Caccia,Ratti and Piemontesi ended.Little thing to notice: this breakaway had begun just 1 km after the beginning of the race,therefore I virtually clap my hands to the riders who formed it.
On Le Mànie a little brown dog started to run in front of the riders: a funny moment for the supporters at home,a moment of nervousness for the riders and a moment of pure fear for the little animal.
With about 55 kms to go,Bouet attacked and this led to a the creation of a breakaway formed by Grabowsky,Mazzanti,Monfort,Beuret,Hoj,Mori and Sentjens.Anyway on the Cipressa the last breakaway rider (Grabowsky) was caught,whereas Cavendish and Visconti got dropped.On the descent Ginanni attacked,but he didn't create a lot of selection.
After the Cipressa,Offredo attacked with 15 kms to go.On the Poggio he was caught by a group containing all the favourites of the race.Rogers attacked on the descent together with Gilbert,Hushvod,Breschel (Fangirl had a lot of faith in him) and Ginanni.I must admit that,while watching them,I thanked the fact that Frank Schleck wasn't racing.
Pozzato attacked with 2 kms to go but he didn't succeed in winning again this race.Although I normally dislike Pozzato because he never attacks in important moments,I must admit that today,at least,he played the "attack" card.Considering that he usually forgets to own that card,he showed an improvement during today's race.
With 1 km to go the main peloton was led by Liquigas' rider Daniel Oss,who was trying to help his captain Bennati.Behind Bennati there was Freire,behind the Spaniard there was Boonen. Bennati started the sprint a bit too early,so Freire easily outsprinted him and Tornado Tom.3rd was Petacchi,while 4th was the incredibly surprising Sacha Modolo.7th was Ginanni,whereas the Best Saxo Banker was Matti Breschel (11th).When he attacked on the Poggio descent I started to think that a Top-5 placement would have been possible for him,but then other riders showed to be faster than him when bunch sprints are concerned.Iglinskiy,9th,was a surprise to me,since I didn't think he could be faster than guys like Gilbert and Breschel.Also Geslin (12th) and Gasparotto (13th) got good results.
In my opinion,the most disappointing rider was probably Boasson Hagen.Anyway I had predicted that he wouldn't have won because of his very young age,therefore I think we must be soft on him.And then,considering Bennati's 5th final placement,I confirm my previous opinion, aka: Liquigas ds should have brought Peter Sagan to this race.
Mark Cavendish came 89th,6 minutes after the winner,together with Boasson Hagen.Anyway,I was really impressed by his way of riding.In fact he managed to stay with the best riders until the Cipressa and,when he found himself at the "arriere du peloton" after Le Mànie climb (all the other favourites had a lot of seconds of advantage of him),he didn't give up and gave it all in order to honour this race.Chapeau Mark.
Between the riders who didn't finish the race there were also Andy Schleck and Baden Cooke.Considering this fact,I think that Andy raced this afternoon just in order to have a long training ride.But,as we know,his first goals of the season are in the month of April,therefore he still has some weeks to improve his condition.
To end this post,here are two things: first of all,a little pat on my shoulder.In fact,I managed to guess the names of the 3 podium riders (even if their order in my prediction was different).After my "oh so totally wrong" predictions before of the Mendrisio RR Championship,I needed this.
And then,the grammatical horror du jour: morning interview to an Italian rider: "C'è molte squadre che lavoreranno per avere una corsa tranquilla".A quanto pare,c'è anche qualcuno che ha bisogno di lavorare per migliorare il suo italiano. ("There is a lot of teams who will work hard to have a quiet race".Actually,it looks as if there is also someone who needs to work hard if he wants to improve his Italian).

(Pic by Bettini)