112th Milano-Sanremo 2021 (UCI 1.UWT) 299km
After 5km from the start in Milan, 8 riders went “up the road” and must have recorded one of the longest breakaways in a cycling race, yes…they managed to stay away for 270km before they were picked up one by one by the chasing peloton!! The race was on with 20km to go with still the Poggio to deal with. Sam Bennett was well-positioned at the front when a flat forced him to change bike and needed to chase for miles to get back, it must have taken too much energy out of Sam and that card of his team was gone, but he got over the hills easy enough and this promised for the spring classics later!! The other card from Deceuninck was Alaphilippe, he attacked on the Poggio but to no avail…no one got away. With 19 they stormed towards Sanremo and at 2.5 kilometers Stuyven smelled the appropriate moment. Kragh Andersen came back in the game of poker, but the 28-year-old Stuyven silenced the Dane early in the sprint, the line came just on time as Caleb Ewan from Lotto reached his wheel to become second. Last year’s winner Wout Van Aert was 3rd It was close but still too far for the big hitters. The longest race of the season (299km) had again a Belgian winner…merci Jasper!! Sam Bennett was the first of the Irish only 29 seconds down in 42nd place, Nico Roche was 115th, 7m14s down on the winner and Ryan Mullen 129th, 8minutes after his Trek teammate Jasper Stuyven.
