Ciolek's Milan-San Remo dreams

Gerald Ciolek is nervous

Gerald Ciolek is nervous (Image credit: John Pierce)

The young German sprinter Gerald Ciolek knows it's a long shot, but he really wouldn't mind winning Milan-Sanremo. "If I'm up there at the finale, then of course I will try for it," he told the Kölner Stadt-Anzeige.

Milan-San Remo "is by far the biggest race I have ever ridden," the 20-year-old T-Mobile rider said. "And I am very nervous, which I'm usually not. I'm here to learn. But of course that doesn't stop me from dreaming."

The biggest problem is that the race is 294 km long, "I've never ridden that much at one time before. I'll just have to see how it goes, how far I can come."

The youngster has a good idea what the race will be like. "It will be brutally hard. There will be attacks without end. And especially at the end is where it gets hard, the many climbs that are in the way, are really hard then. So I have a great respect for it. Especially this year, everybody wants to win. After all, Milano-Sanremo is 100 years old."

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