Today, La Primavera took the riders over almost 300 km from Milan to Sanremo. In contrast to previous years, tailwinds were predicted for the decisive section along the coast to Sanremo, which is why a particularly tough finale was expected. BORA - hansgrohe positioned itself at the front of the peloton about 50 km ahead of the finish, but a crash involving Sam Bennett and Cesare Benedetti put the team a little behind. After the peloton split on the Cipressa, an attack by Nils Polit on the flat section before the Poggio unfortunately remained unsuccessful. On the last climb the main group split again and in the end Marco Haller and Nils Politt reached the finish in the third group in 17th and 21st place. The victory went to M. Van der Poel after he went solo over the last five kilometres.
Results
01 M. Van der Poel 6:25:23
02 F. Ganna + 0:15
03 W. Van Aert + 0:15
17 M. Haller + 0:32
21 N. Politt + 0:32
From the finish line
"Sam's crash threw us off somewhat, and the problem was that there were only two of us in the group after the Cipressa. It's near impossible to ride in a halfway position because you have to save some energy. I was almost the last to enter the Poggio. My legs were feeling good and I kept moving forward. But when gaps open up, you're just left essentially where you are. In the end we almost caught up to the second group. I might have started my sprint a bit too early and three or four riders passed me at the line." - Marco Haller
"I had good legs today. On the Poggio a gap opened up in front of me and I thought that with Asgreen in the group, I’d wait until the very top. But somehow just nobody could. It’s frustrating, because I had more left. When I attacked before the Poggio, nobody wanted to go either. It feels like I was always in the wrong place at the wrong time. The only positive thing is that the form seems to be there, ahead of the races in Belgium." - Nils Politt
"One can't really blame the guys today. We were ahead at the crucial points in the race, and of course we knew that we are not the very top favourites here. That's why we wanted to ride intelligently, save energy and make a surprise. When Cece and Sam crashed, it was of course very unfortunate. First of all, we had hoped for Sam in the sprint, but most of all it threw a spanner in the works right before the Cipressa. After the climb, we only had Nils and Marco in front. Nils tried, but no one wanted to follow him. That was a pity, as we wanted to create some chaos, but it didn’t work out and alone it was pointless. Ultimately, both riders were still close to the top ten. It wasn't enough, but as I already said, we don't really have anything to blame ourselves for." - Enrico Gasparotto, Sports Director