Milan San Remo – The Poggio

Over the past twenty years, the Poggio was becoming less and less decisive. Since the turn of the century, a sprinter has triumphed on the Via Roma no less than eleven times. But in the last four years the turnaround has come thanks to Kwiatkowski, Nibali, Alaphilippe and Van Aert.

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Milan San Remo – The Poggio (from wielerflits)

Over the past twenty years, the Poggio was becoming less and less decisive. Since the turn of the century, a sprinter has triumphed on the Via Roma no less than eleven times. But in the last four years the turnaround has come thanks to Kwiatkowski, Nibali, Alaphilippe and Van Aert.

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It was in the late 1950s when the organizers of Milan-San Remo discovered the Poggio, after which the famous bulge was first added to the route of the Classic in 1960. Since then, the peloton has been racing continuously up the Poggio for more than half a century. A short four kilometers with barely 149 meters difference in height and an average gradient of 3.7 percent. No more than a molehill for a professional, but enough after 180 miles to separate the men from the boys.

In the following decades after the 1950s, icons of the sport like Poulidor, Merckx, and Raas, among others, laid the foundation for their success on the Primavera. If no difference was made there on the ascent, there was still the technical descent to be used to make the difference. Merckx rode away from his rivals on that descent in both 1969 and 1972. De Vlaeminck, Moser and Kelly later followed his example.

With sprinters such as Zabel, Cipollini, Freire, Petacchi, Cavendish, Ciolek, Kristoff, Degenkolb and Démare, the last twenty years have mainly been sprinters contesting the party on the Via Roma. Cancellara made his move in the streets of San Remo in 2008 with a late and surprise attack. Only Bettini (2003, won the sprint of a trio), Pozzato (2006, survivor of a group that left the Poggio), Goss (2011, the fastest of eight), Simon Gerrans (2012, together with Cancellara and Nibali) and Gerald Ciolek (2013, together with Sagan the only sprinter to survive the climb) laid the basis for their victory on the Poggio. After Ciolek, there was again three years in a row where a large group sprinted on the Via Roma.

But the past four editions Kwiatkowski, Nibali, Alaphilippe (in 2019 with six others in his wake, last year with Van Aert) proved that an attack on the Poggio (literally translated: ‘the small hill’) can still pay off. In 2017, Peter Sagan continued with Julian Alaphilippe and Michal Kwiatkowski, after which the latter beat his two fellow escapees in the sprint. In 2018, Vincenzo Nibali slipped away, only to keep the chasing peloton behind him after a lightning-fast descent. Alaphilippe attacked in 2019, with six other riders in his wake. And in 2020, the Frenchman shot away again. Only Wout van Aert could keep up with him on the descent and beat him in the sprint.

Photo: The Roadbook 2020

Since the introduction of the Poggio, Milan-San Remo has been contested 58 times. Where was the foundation of victory laid? An overview of the last 20 years:

ON THE CLIMB: x 9
2003: Paolo Bettini, 2006: Filippo Pozzato, 2011: Matthew Goss, 2012: Simon Gerrans, 2013: Gerald Ciolek, 2017: Michal Kwiatkowski, 2018: Vincenzo Nibali, 2019: Julian Alaphilippe, 2020: Wout van Aert

IN THE STREETS OF SAN REMO: 1 x
2008: Fabian Cancellara

IN A GROUP PRINT: x 10 x (group size in brackets)
2001: Erik Zabel (60),
2002: Mario Cipollini (44),
2004: Oscar Freire (28),
2005: Alessandro Petacchi (39),
2007: Oscar Freire (46),
2009: Mark Cavendish (34),
2010: Oscar Freire (25),
2014: Alexander Kristoff (27),
2015: John Degenkolb (26),
2016: Arnaud Demare (31)

Source Click here for the original article in Dutch:

 

 

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