Milano-Sanremo: Goss!

Ok, my podium prediction was completely wrong. Also my race prediction ('it will end up in a bunch sprint') was completely wrong. Oh dear, what happened to my prediction abilities?
Anyway. Yesterday Milan-Sanremo was even more thrilling than usual, thanks to some big crashes and to some great attacks. La Classicissima is one of my favourite races because of many reasons. Firstly, it's the first one-day classic of the year. Secondly, it marks the official beginning of the true season (next week there is Gend-Wevelgem, yay!). Thirdly, it's a 298 kms long race, but a rider can make the winning move even in the last meter of it (ask mr. Freire for further information). Moreover, la Classicissima has the Poggio and the Cipressa descents, two of the craziest downhills roads that the peloton must face every year. Last but not least, Milan-Sanremo = Primavera (Spring), just like Lombardia = Classica delle foglie morte ('Classic of the falling leaves', aka of the autumn).

Yesterday race began under the sign of Japan. Farnese-Vini's rider, Takashi Miyazawa, was very moved at the start of the Classicissima, when the riders had a moment of silence in order to think about the Japanese tragedy. In order to help his country, Takashi asked his colleagues for help and in fact every rider will sell the jersey that he wore yesterday. Moreover, a big Japanese flag was signed by the 198 riders that took part in the race and it will be sold as well in the next days.
Takashi was one of the early protagonists of the race, since he formed a breakaway after just 12 kms of race. When he got caught, he helped his teammate Visconti and he was one of the 156 riders who ended the race. Chapeau to him!
Yesterday race had its first coup de scene after 208 kms of race, at the start of le Mànie climb. Right before of it, Hushovd crashed together with other riders. On the climb descent, instead, it was Freire's turn to tumble. After these falls, the peloton was broken in two parts. In the first one there were guys like Cancellara, Bennati, Gerdemann, O'Grady, Gilbert, Greipel, Van Avermaet, Ballan, Pozzato, Paolini, Petacchi (only Lampre rider there), Boonen, Offredo, Chainel, Boasson Hagen, Nibali, Sagan, Ventoso, Marcato, Rojas, Rollin, Klier and Haussler. In the second group, instead, there were riders like Hushovd, Farrar, the whole Lampre team apart from Petacchi, Visconti, Cavendish, Renshaw, Bozic, Matthews (who had crashed earlier in the race), Freire, Cooke, Haedo and Arvesen.
BMC, Omega Pharma-Lotto and Katusha immediately started to pull hard at the front of the race, whereas the second group of riders couldn't get organised in a fast way. Amongst the most active teams in the chase there were Farnese-Vini and Euskaltel Euskadi (why?), whereas Columbia never chased in a decided way.
At the beginning of la Cipressa, the first group had about 1.50 minute advantage on the second one. Then, Scarponi attacked and he came back in the first group in a great way. That move made us understand that Petacchi wasn't at his best, while Michele right now has a great condition. Scarponi managed not to be followed by anyone in his chase and that was really a great numero.
In the meanwhile, the race got even more thrilling. Offredo and Ballan attacked, but the first one to arrive on the top of la Cipressa was Popovych. However, he was soon caught and Française des Jeux launched a great attack with Offredo and Chainel, who were soon joined by Van Avermaet and O'Grady. It was a very interesting move, since Van Avermaet and O'Grady are very fast, Chainel seemed in a great form and Offredo, in spite of the young age, is never afraid of attacking riders that are more famous than him. Moreover, Yoann seems to love Sanremo, since he attacked in the finale also a few years ago.
Greipel sacrificed himself for Gilbert during the quartet chase and in the end the 4 breakawayers were caught on the Poggio. Nibali attacked and during the descent he was joined by Cancellara, Gilbert, Ballan, Offredo, Pozzato, Goss and Scarponi.
In the last few kms, Cancellara tried to attack, but he was immediately chased by Goss. Therefore, he immediately interrupted his effort. The second one to attack was Gilbert, who was followed by-guess who?- Pozzato. In the end, the race was decided in a sprint. The one who launched it was Scarponi, but in the end the winner was Matthew Goss, the only sprinter that managed to stay glued to the wheel of the attackers. Second (for a few centimeters) was Cancellara, while 3rd was Gilbert.

I must say that I enjoyed this edition of la Classicissima, although I was sorry for the riders who crashed. Chronists kept on saying that it was the most exciting Sanremo of the last few years and that caused my father (who supported Matthews and Freire) to get very angry. 'If you consider exciting a race that is decided by crashes, well, this year Sanremo was the perfect race for you. On the other hand, if you like races where the strongest, and not the luckiest, wins, then you might have found it disappointing', he said at the end of it.
Luckily for me, although he wasn't in a very happy mood, watching the race with my father was very nice. For example, he was the one who said the quote of the day. During the podium ceremony, in fact, he looked at me and he said: 'Hey, but what colour are Cancellara's hair?'. I looked at him in a pretty surprised way before answering: 'Dark brown, I guess... Why did you ask me? Are you not feeling fine?'. His answer to my questions (be careful not to fall off your chair) was : 'Dark brown? Really? Are you sure? They actually look violet to me...' . I was almost falling off the couch when he told me that. After all, it had been a long (and disappointing) Sanremo also for him...
Talking about tiredness, also Rai's Alessandra De Stefano was exhausted at the end of the race. So exhausted that she said 'That's all from the Lungotevere of Sanremo, good evening everyone!' instead of 'That's all from the Lungomare of Sanremo!'. In fact, Lungotevere is a word that Italians use to indicate places in Rome that are near to the rider Tevere, while 'lungomare' is a word that is used to indicate the long roads near to the sea that you can find in many Italian villages. However, Alessandra was able to correct herself when she saw that her colleagues were grinning at her.
Back to the riders, however, I must say that I'm happy for Goss. I bet that, in the finale, he probably thought: 'The two most dangerous riders right now are Gilbert and Cancellara. Considering that Pozzato will surely follow Gilbert wherever he can, it's better if I glue myself to Cancellara's wheel!' . He did so (he was the only one who followed Fabian when he attacked, the other ones remained behind them) and in the end he got a stunning victory.
Also Cancellara was very good. He stopped his attack when he saw that Goss had followed him (why continuing the attack with Goss glued to your wheel when you know that he is going to beat you in a possible two-men sprint?) and in the end he came 2nd and he managed to outsprint a fast guy like Gilbert.
Also Stuart O'Grady was really good. I was actually happy to see Leopard behaving as a team. Fabian, Stuart, Bennati and Gerdemann were in the first group of riders and I was very glad about it.
Gilbert was 3rd and I'm sure he was pretty disappointed by that. However, he didn't look very brilliant on the Poggio, so I think he should be quite happy for his result.
Pozzato, as usual, seemed to race not in order to win, but in order to make other riders lose. In fact, he was the one who followed Gilbert and helped the other ones to catch him in the final 2 kms of the race. Philippe got pretty angry at that, especially because Pippo has been shadowing him since the Worlds in Australia. However, now that Philippe is not going to take part in Roubaix, Pippo will probably start to shadow another Belgian, Tom Boonen. Therefore, Tommeke, you'd better get ready for that.
On to another rider, I think that Scarponi raced very well. Petacchi didn't feel fine and Michele gave Lampre a good placement anyway. Moreover, he was the one who started the sprint: he knew he isn't very fast, but he gave it a try anyway.
Chainel and Offredo were really strong too. Pay attention to Yoann: this boy's got a lot of talent. It isn't easy to do certain things after 290 kms of race!
Haussler was disappointing, but it wasn't easy to follow guys like Gilbert and Nibali when they attacked. Saxo Bank was considered 'disappointing' too, but their leader was JJ Haedo and he had problems because of Hushovd's crashes. Therefore, Tosatto (the only one who remained in the first group of riders after le Manie) couldn't do much.
Greipel gave a big hand to Gilbert, perhaps because he wasn't in good form. Sagan disappeared in the finale, probably because 290 kms are too many for him. Petacchi instead was 12th although he didn't feel fine, while Bennati was 13th. Poor Marcato, who crashed on the Poggio, was 15th.
Boasson Hagen was 30th, but he doesn't seem in a good form right now. Therefore, no surprises from him. Rabobank was disappointing, but we must consider that its team leaders, Matthews and Freire, crashed, while Langeveld, Tjallingi and Boom had to work hard to help them.
Visconti was extremely disappointed by the race (it looked as if he was going to break into tears when he was interviewed by the Italian tv!) but he was very unlucky. Now Giovanni will have plenty of time to prepare the next races, where I'm sure that he'll get very good results.
So, that's all for now. Have a good Sunday and enjoy the sun (at least, here in Italy it is sunny, I don't know what the weather is like in the rest of the world...)! And don't forget to take a look at Bananas about Bikes: Mar has published a great post about la Vuelta in Assen!!

(Pic by Bettini)