Good afternoon everyone, friends of the Steem community. I will tell you about the first monument of the UCI World Tour season of international cycling: La Milano - San Remo 2022.
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The acclaimed race this year featured a challenging 293-kilometre route, starting in Milan and traditionally finishing in the city of San Remo. Like every year, the climbs to the Cipressa and the Poggio di Sanremo, will make the selection of the most powerful cyclists who will opt for the victory in the final kilometers.
The Milano San Remo began with an excellent line-up of stars, among which the current champion of the Tour de France stands out in the foreground, the Slovenian Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team - Emirates) who, together with his compatriot and current winner of the Vuelta a España, Primož Roglič (Team Jumbo-Visma), who have dominated the World Tour circuit at the start of the season. In addition to the Slovenians, the race starts with the big favorites, the puncheurs Mathieu van der Poel (NED - Team Alpecin - Fenix), Wout van Aert (BEL - Team Jumbo-Visma), Thomas Pidcock (GBR - Ineos Grenadiers), Michael Matthews (AUS - Team Bike Exchange - Jayco), Alex Aranburu (ESP - Movistar Team) and the sprinters Fabio Jakobsen (NED - Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl), Peter Sagan (SLV - Team TotalEnergies), Arnaud Demare (FRA - Groupama-FDJ) and Mads Pedersen (DEN - Trek-Segafredo).
At 140 km from the finish line, the first break of the day was formed, with eight runners who managed to make a gap with respect to the main pack, quickly reaching an advantage of up to six minutes with respect to the bulk of the favorites who were pre-emptively saving their strength. thinking about the two final slopes.
When there are less than 100 kilometers left, the peloton begins to pick up the pace, thus managing to start cutting time with respect to the eight escapees, who shoot together to keep their distance from the main lot .
Until the last 50 km the big teams have remained without making attacks, settling for controlling the pace of the race
When there are less than 100 kilometers left, the platoon begins to pick up the pace, thus managing to start cutting time with respect to the eight escapees, who shoot together to keep their distance from the main lot .
Until the last 50 km the big teams have remained without making attacks, settling for controlling the pace of the race while waiting to enter the final stretch to start the long-awaited final battle. The increased pace in the peloton manages to drop one of the great favorites, the current Mountain Bike Olympic champion, the British Thomas Pidcock, who could not withstand the speed imposed by the peloton.
With the proximity of the Cipressa, the powerful Jumbo-Visma puts its gregarious to pull the pack of favorites, with a view to placing its leaders Wout van Aert and Primož Roglič in a favorable position, to start the ascent to the Cipressa level. Meanwhile, the breakaway shows signs of fatigue, being at the head of the race alone for almost 200 km has worn down the eight runners who initially took the race lead, leaving two competitors in the breakaway, the Pro Continentals Samuele Rivi (ITA - Eolo-Kometa) and Alessandro Tonelli (ITA - Bardiani CSF). Meanwhile another of the favourites, three-time world champion Peter Sagan, suffered a mechanical mishap, falling behind in the race for victory.
The climb to Cipressa makes the peloton selection, the infernal pace of the dutch's Jumb-Visma, aided by the UAE Team - Emirates have radically selected the peloton. Only about thirty cyclists manage to keep up with the pace imposed by ** Davide Formolo ** (ITA-UAE Team-Emirates), who, with a suffocating pace, prepares the ground for a potential attack by his leader, Tadej Pogačar. Among others, Fabio Jakobsen, the best sprinter of the start of the season, can't keep up with the pace at the top and misses out on his chances of reaching the end of the race in the front row.
On the slopes of the defining Poggio di Sanremo the small group of favorites hunt down the last two escapees. The final ascent to the Poggio begins with the first attack of the favourites, Tadej Pogačar taking advantage of his excellent climbing skills launches the first snatch, 7.7km from the finish line, being closely followed by Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel.
Reducing the effort, his compatriot **Primož Roglič ** launches a counter-attack, which fails to establish a difference with the rest of the favourites. Immediately afterwards, Tadej Pogačar resumes a new offensive, tightening the pace at the top, and further selecting the group of favourites, where only about fifteen cyclists could keep up with the Slovenian, after the new attack by Pogačar was neutralized, the Danish Søren Kragh Andersen (team DSM), tries to go it alone, attacking in the last meters before reaching the Poggio; It seemed that the Scandinavian's attack was going to make a definitive difference, but an umpteenth counter-attack from Pogačar cut off the wings of the Danish classicomaniac.
After the final ascent, Pogačar takes the descent at the head of the race, the main group catches up with him. What the batch of favorites did not count, was the sublime skills in the descent of Matej Mohorič (SVN - Bahrain Victorious), who, three kilometers from the finish, launches like a rocket through the curves, risking it all in a vertiginous descent, many times to the limit of going off the road; his attack leaves the favorites behind, van der Poel tries to follow him but fails to contact him.
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We reach the final kilometer, Mohorič manages to gain a small distance. About ten seconds separate him from the six or seven pursuers. Van Aert, at the head of the chasing pack, is desperate to catch up with the Bahrain runner. The difference decreases. a surprising Anthony Turgis (FRA - Team TotalEnergies), launches an unexpected attack, nobody expected the Frenchman to be in the running in the final meters of the race; his momentum closes the gap with ** Mohorič **, who sees how the great long-distance runners approach him. In a final effort, the Slovenian manages to hold onto the race lead, crossing the finish line victorious, just two seconds ahead of Anthony Turgis, and Mathieu van der Poel managing to win in the chasing pack sprint to Michael Matthews and
Tadej Pogacar.
The Slovenian Matej Mohorič thus achieves the first monument of his career. Winner of a Tour de France stage last year, he achieved victory in San Remo, his best victory as a professional, and gave Slovenia a new victory, completing the podium with the Frenchman Anthony Turgis and the Dutch Mathieu van der Poel.
In the following image we see the final results of the Milano San Remo, as every year, the first monument of the year, offered us an exciting show with attacks and battles by the great lights of the international platoon.
