Milan-San Remo: Demare takes upset win

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Arnaud Demare (FDJ) ended France’s long wait for monument when he took the crown in Milan-San Remo. The Frenchman won the sprint by half a bike length over Ben Swift (Team Sky) and Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto-Soudal), with a late crash spoiling the chances for several riders.

Demare also suffered a crash on the Cipressa, but re-joined the front of the race on the slopes of Poggio before taking the win, courtesy of a perfectly-timed sprint.

The day was marked by numerous wrecks, the most crucial coming when Etixx-Quickstep rider Fernando Gaviria touched wheels and fell in the final few hundred metres. He knocked world champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) off his line and the Tinkoff rider was unable to regain his momentum after almost 300 kilometres or racing.

The disrupted sprint was led out by Roelandts but Demare came past with a huge turn of speed to snatch the victory. He first made up ground to Roelandts, just as Nacer Bouhanni suffered a mechanical, before coming around the Lotto-Soudal rider. Swift tracked Demare all the way but was unable to overhaul the Frenchman.

“This is incredible. There are days like this one in which everything works despite the occasional hiccup, like crashing at the bottom of the Cipressa,” Demare said.

“I made it across at the bottom of the Poggio and the entire way I felt fantastic. I became the under-23 world champion in similar conditions after crashing. I'm delighted to win Milan-San Remo. This is a big one and has been running for over a century. It's extraordinary. I'm extremely happy."

An earlier break on the Cipressa came to nothing, and a large group started the final climb, the Poggio, together. There were few genuine attacks on the ascent with Michael Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) providing the first real threat and going clear with 6km to go.

Home favourite Vincenzo Nibali led a furious chase on the descent, and although the attacks continued, the small field came together with Kwiatkowski on the flat run-in after a huge turn from Fabian Cancellara. The Trek-Segafredo rider, competing in his final Classics campaign, was a marked man, with Matteo Trentin pinned to his wheel.

With just over 1,000 metres remaining Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) surged clear but he, with Greg Van Avermaet on his wheel, was unable to hold off the chase.

Suddenly Gaviria appeared and although he had Sagan on his wheel the Colombian looked like the favourite for the sprint as the leaders rounded the final corner. A touch of wheel destroyed the neo-pro rider’s first Milan-San Remo and took Sagan out of contention as a bunch of riders, including Demare, not only regained contact with the head of the race, but surged for the line.

Nacer Bouhanni, the Frenchman most commentators, had been talked about in the build-up, was present. He and Demare were former FDJ teammates, but Bouhanni was denied the chance to sprint, suffering a cruel mechanical with the line in sight. It was of no consequence to Demare who hit the front of Milan-San Remo with a powerful sprint.

France’s wait for a winner of Milan-San Remo stretched back to 1995, while their last Monument came two year’s later in Lombardia. The wait is finally over. Demare has well and truly arrived.

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How it unfolded

Warm sunshine and pleasant spring temperatures greeted the peloton as it gathered outside Castello Sforzesco for the start of Milan-San Remo, a far cry from the dank conditions of recent years. There were brighter hues than usual on the roadside, too, as the familiar names of Pavia, Casteggio, Tortona and Novi Ligure trundled by on the long trek from Milan to the Riviera.

The race quickly settled into its traditional rhythm once the flag dropped. The typically intense start was followed by a respite of sorts once the day’s early break sallied clear on leaving Binasco, after 14 kilometres.

Gediminas Bagdonas (AG2R La Mondiale), Serghei Tvetcov (Giocattoli Androni-Sidermec), Mirco Maestri (Bardiani-CSF), Jan Barta (Bora-Argon 18), Adrian Hurek (CCC-Sprandi Polkowice), Roger Kluge (IAM Cycling), Matteo Bono (Lampre-Merida), Samuele Conti (Southeast-Venezuela), Maarten Tjallingii (LottoNL-Jumbo), Andrea Peron (Team Novo Nordisk) and Marco Coledan (Trek-Segafredo) quickly established a solid understanding, building a maximum lead of 10:35 after 50 kilometres, before Orica-GreenEdge and Tinkoff set about managing the deficit.

By that point, word had spread of a landslide on the coast road near Arenzano, with 130 kilometres remaining, but organisers RCS Sport moved swiftly to arrange an alteration to the route that allowed the race to circumvent the roadblock by switching onto the motorway for 9 kilometres.

Meanwhile, the escapees reached the top of the Turchino with a lead of 5 minutes over the bunch, where Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff) was doing the bulk of the heavy lifting. The speed ratcheted upwards on the motorway section, and the break’s gap continued to dwindle as they tackled the headlands of the Riviera.

By the first of the five capi, the Capo Mele, the gap was down to 2:18 and the increasing tension in the peloton was demonstrated by the nervous crashes, with Julien Vermote (Etixx-QuickStep) and Federico Zurlo (Lampre-Merida) among those to come down in separate incidents.

The advantage melted further on the Capo Cervo, dropping to 1:30, and it hovered at around the minute mark by the Capo Berta. The 11 escapees’ adventure would fizzle out soon afterwards ahead of the endgame on the Cipressa and the Poggio.

On the descent Marco Haller crashed, leaving Kristoff without a valuable piece of his armoury but Katusha continued to apply the pressure.

The fight for positioning saw another crash take place, this time with pre-race favourite Michael Matthews hitting the deck with Demare and Team Sky’s Peter Kennaugh. All looked lost for those involved, especially when Katusha continued with their work on the front but the chasers never gave up and used the Cipressa to pace themselves back into contention.

With 25km remaining the break was finally caught. Giovanni Visconti slipped clear halfway up the climb, dragging Ian Stannard with him. On the descent, the pair were joined by Daniel Oss, Matteo Montaguti, and Fabio Sabatini, the latter unwilling to work with Gaviria still in the main field. However, the 9km run into the Poggio always favoured the peloton and by the time the race hit the lower slopes Demare was back and the peloton had regrouped

Kristoff looked in control as his team set about the pace duties and although Kwiatkowski soared clear – partly to soften up the bunch but also to aim for his won success – there were enough favourites to neutralise the move.

From the descent to the line – the race had everything bar a predicted finish. Within less than a few seconds the favourite tag switched with almost violent inconsistency from Boassan Hagen to Van Avermaet, to Gaviria to Bouhanni. However, it was Demare who came out on top.

Full Results