A Thirteenth French Triumph at the 107th Primavera

On March 19 Italy hosted the legendary Italian Monument, the one-day classic Milan–San Remo. This year we saw the 107th edition of the Primavera, and this year’s winner, Arnaud Démare, brought France its thirteenth victory, counting from the legendary Lucien Petit-Breton, who won the first race back in 1907. I’ll add that the previous French winner, Laurent Jalabert, won in 1995, 21 years ago.

 

 

The Classicissima is among the most prestigious races in cycling; it has been held every year since 1907, and over the century it was not held only three times, in 1916, 1944 and 1945. The race is one of the longest of its kind: its distance traditionally exceeds 290 kilometers and, starting in Milan, it traditionally ends in San Remo.

 

 

As usual, the elite of the world peloton’s riders of the relevant specialization gathered at the start in Milan this year; a notable absentee was last year’s winner, Germany’s John Degenkolb, who could not take part.

The race strategy can be simply defined like this: a rider must reach the Cipressa climb at kilometer 264 with minimal losses, get over it in the leading group, and be ready for anything on the Poggio di San Remo, where he must act according to his own specialization.

 

This year the main events took place within the last 25 kilometers. On the Cipressa Giovanni Visconti attacked, followed by Ian Stannard. The pair crested the almost 6-kilometer climb first and descended toward the Poggio di San Remo; their lead was 10 seconds on the climb and over 20 on the descent, which of course could not be decisive. The chasers didn’t let the leaders build a comfortable gap. On the flat the escapees were first joined by Oss, Montaguti and Sabatini, and later, on the approach to the Poggio, the peloton came back together.

 

 

On the Poggio first Fedi, then Kwiatkowski attacked; last year’s world champion even gained a small lead and was first onto the final descent. Three great champions, Vincenzo Nibali, Fabian Cancellara and Peter Sagan, chased him, and Kwiato’s chances dropped to a minimum. The result came soon enough: in the final kilometer all the main contenders headed for the finish line together.

 

 

As the winning sprint was being launched, the Colombian Gaviria fell after an awkward movement, blocking the way for the two top favorites, Fabian Cancellara and Peter Sagan, and making their victory impossible. Nothing could stop the sprint once launched. The tense finish was won by Arnaud Démare, who had crashed twice that day, and, as we noted at the start, brought France its thirteenth win in the legendary race, writing his name in golden letters in the history of French and world cycling.

 

 

Joining Arnaud on the podium were Britain’s Ben Swift and Belgium’s Jürgen Roelandts.

 

 

As far as possible, let’s also pay attention to the race’s surroundings, especially where we pass a vineyard!

 

 

 

 

 

Featured image: Yuzuru SUNADA/www.yuzurusunada.com

Inside post thumbnail image: Yuzuru SUNADA/www.yuzurusunada.com

 

Special thanks to the Japanese photographer Yuzuru SUNADA for permission to use his works in our publications.

 

 

 

Translated from Georgian with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic), reviewed by the Velorbola editors.