Barguil, Dumoulin and Geschke to be key men in the finale for the Australian
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Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) finished second(Image credit: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us)
Simon Geschke (Sunweb) signs on at the start(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Warren Barguil climbs in the bunch during Milano-Torino(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
A smiling Nikias Arndt on the podium(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Australian Michael Matthews will lead Team Sunweb this Saturday at Milan-San Remo as confirmed by the German squad. Matthews was third at the 2015 edition of Milan-San Remo but suffered a high speed crash last year and was unable to contest for the victory.
In his first year with the team, Sunweb have built a strong squad around the 26-year-old which includes fast man Nikias Arndt, Warren Barguil, Tom Dumoulin, and Simon Geschke. Winners in 2015 with John Degenkolb, Team Sunweb know how to win La Classicissima di primavera as coach Aike Visbeek explained.
"Milano Sanremo is an important race for us and we have achieved good results here in the past," said Visbeek. "We bring a good and experienced team to the race and recent years suggest that the likelihood of a decimated bunch sprint is likely to be the outcome. We have checked out the course and gone through all of the details with the whole team, so we are fully prepared for the day."
Visbeck added that it is crucial Matthews arrives as fresh as possible onto the Via Roma where he can utilise his fast finishing and claim the victory.
"We aim to get a result with Michael and we have Tom, Simon and Warren who will be there in the final to support him," he added. "As we've learned two years ago with John [Degenkolb] cooperation will be the deciding factor in the race, and it will be crucial to bring Michael as fresh as possible to Sanremo. After a good week and lots of progress made at Paris-Nice we go there with confidence."
In the last two seasons, Matthews had won a stage of Paris-Nice before heading to Italy for Milan-San Remo but in 2017 he will start the race without a win to his name for the year. However, he showed his form with four top-ten results including fourth in the uphill Mont Brouilly time trial and will be confident of a result.
For the first of the fie monuments, Team Sunweb will also field Dutch duo Roy Curvers and Albert Timmer from the 2015 winning squad, along with Tom Stamsnijder.
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Team Sunweb for the 2017 Milan-San Remo: Nikias Arndt (Ger), Warren Barguil (Fra), Roy Curvers (Ned), Tom Dumoulin (Ned), Simon Geschke (Ger), Michael Matthews (Aus), Tom Stamsnijder (Ned) and Albert Timmer (Ned).
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