[UCI World Tour] Milano-Sanremo 2018

Milano-Sanremo

How it works

Predict who is going to win the race; that's all. :)

Entries close when the race starts (Saturday morning).

Race Preview

The longest race of all the classics (291 km) has been for the sprinters in recent years but there's always going to be fireworks on the Cipressa and Poggio. The list of possible winners is long, even if we lost a few due to injuries (Gaviria, Degenkolb, Nizzolo).

Sites
Official Site
Wikipedia

Favorites

• Last year's winner (and winner of the Tirreno-Adriatico last week) Michal Kwiatkowski is certainly favorite again. It's been quite a while since anyone successfully defended their title at Sanremo (2001). Can he do it?
• Peter Sagan never won this race, which is quite strange considering his talents. He wasn't happy about how he lost last year but he should admit that the smarter man won. Looking at his third World Championship victory in Bergen last year, he might have learned this; will his attacking nature get the better of him and unleash an attack on the Poggio or will he stick to the wheel of another favorite till 200 metres before the finish?
• Quick-Step Floors; might as well list three favorites under one heading, Team Quick-Step Floors has just such a raft of absolutely amazing cyclists. If Fernando Gaviria hadn't been out with an injury then they would have started the race with four guys who all can win here. Left are: Julian Alaphilippe who finished second last year and second in quite a few other classics. Will this be his first win? Elia Viviani; an Italian sprinter on his home soil who can likely just stay in the pack and hope the bigger names will tire each other out. Philippe Gilbert; not the first name you'd think of when you say Milano-Sanremo but he's finished on the podium here before. And he has very much set his sights on this one as it's one of two monuments he hasn't won yet. Count on his team being fully behind him on trying to complete this legendary set.
• Sonny Colbrelli; see Elia Viviani. :p
• 2016 winner Arnaud Démare came out of nowhere (this wasn't thought of as his kind of race) and was quite the surprise result; a second victory would show it wasn't a fluke.
• 2014 winner Alexander Kristoff certainly is a classics rider but it's been quite a while since his last major victory.
• Greg Van Avermaet hasn't looked great yet this season but he's starting here and that means he's a potential winner.
• Sunweb starts with Michael Matthews who is back from a shoulder injury with Tom Dumoulin in support though he had a nasty crash in the Tirreno-Adriatico last week.
• There are a lot more sprinters who could surprise here (Marcel Kittel's been winning last week, Mark Cavendish unfortunately crashed but is starting) and also quite a few riders who will try for it on the Pogio (Vincenzo Nibali and Gianni Moscon; just to name two Italian possibilities).

Giveaway

View attached image.

View attached image.

View attached image.