Milano-Sanremo 2024

March 16, 2024 An Idyllic day saw the riders take on 288KM of the first Monument of the year. It took 17KM to form the break but when it did, it consisted of eleven riders, Valerio Conti, Davide Baldaccini and Kyrylo Tsarenko of Team Corratec-Vini Fantini, Sergio Samitier of Movistar, Romain Combaud of DSM-Firmenich, Davide Bais, Mirco Maestri, and Andrea Pietrobon of Team Polti Kometa, Alessandro Tonelli and Samuele Zoccarato of Bardiani CSF-Faizanè, and Lorenzo Germani of Groupama-FDJ. Shortly after the break was established, Lidl-Trek and Alpecin-Deceuninck picked up the chase with Jacopo Mosca and Silvan Dillier to hold the gap close. Germani said goodbye to the break shortly after to go back to the safety of the peloton. Over the Passo Del Turchino, the break still only had two minutes and seemed to be doomed earlier than normal. The race hit the Capo Mele and UAE went to the front to put the pressure on the field. The bunch was reduced on the Capo Berta as UAE hit it again. The break got on to the Cipressa with forty second gap. UAE were late to the party on the Cipressa, not arriving at the front until almost a kilometer into the climb. UAE seemed to run out of riders and really knocked off the pace half way up. Damage was done but not as much as expected. Lidl-Trek led the decent as the final breakaway riders dangled in front with only eight seconds. Samiter overcooked a corner, bringing down a Polti Kometa rider. The pair were right in front of the peloton but no one else went down. There was no organization at the bottom of the Cipressa so Davide Bais went solo but he was caught again 1.5KM from start of the Poggio. Before the start of the Poggio however, a large dropped group made their way back to the peloton, nearly doubling the size to over sixty riders. The speed on the Poggio was fast but not lightning fast. Tadej Pogačar of UAE tried to make a gap with over a KM from the top but had nearly ten riders clinging on the wheels. Jasper Stuyven of Lidl-Trek knew he had to get to the front to keep the speed in order to discourage attacks but just as he did, Pogačar attacked again over the top. Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Deceuninck was the only one to follow and the pair went over the top together. Filippo Ganna of Ineos led a group of about ten across the top but they were only four or five seconds behind. The two front groups hit the bottom all together and Matej Mohorič of Bahrain-Victorious was first to take a flyer. Mathieu van der Poel and Stuyven worked together to bring him back. Matteo Sobrero of Bora-Hansgrohe and Tom Pidcock of Ineos were next to attack and looked promising. Again, van der Poel sacrificed himself and was able to reel it back but Pidcock was only caught 200M from the line. The sprint was set up with Stuyven leading out Mads Pedersen. Pedersen went to the right side, Michael Matthews of Jayco AlUla went left. Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Deceuninck was on Matthews' wheel and snuck through on the barriers. He had a good run and got level with Matthews on the line. A bike throw was the difference, Philipsen took the win by the depth of the rim. Pogačar had enough to get on the podium. for third.