The first of the Monuments, and the longest race of the year is here! the Milan San-Remo will be a bit warmer than the previous two bone-chilling editions, and we will hopefully be treated to some more attacking racing than last year. This race is open to a win from both the sprinters and the puncheurs, so there's a wide host of riders who can win this one.
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Stage 5 will see the race go back to being a day for the sprinters, but the mountains aren't gone entirely. It will be a hard day in the saddle, and the finale could suit anyone from a sprinter to a puncheur, and we should see some of the GC candidates getting in the mix.
It could be a reduced sprint, or one of the hardest stages in living memory, it will all come down to how it is raced. Hopefully it will hard from the starting gun, and we see the race explode later on, with attacks coming early and riders all over the road.
The only mountaintop finish of the race is sure to give us a clearer picture of the GC, and the top riders will be fighting all the way to the peak of the Croix de Chaubouret after 204 kilometres of gruelling racing.
Stage 3 tweaks the sprint formula a bit, there's some climbing on the run-in this time, the sprint itself will be slightly uphill and there's a corner 300m from the line. There's sure to be more action on this stage than the previous two, though you could hardly be too disappointed with the final 20 kms of either stage to date.
Another day, another sprint finish. Hopefully it will be run a bit quicker today, and with the weather turning colder, the riders might want to go faster just to keep warm.
Stage 1 is all about the sprinters, and it is as flat as a pancake, or rather, a crepe. First stage to establish a pecking order, with Kristoff and Greipel coming from different formlines. Enjoy the scenery on the coverage, because there probably won't be much action until the last 20 kms.
We're into Italy now, with one of my favourite races of the season on the white gravelly roads of the Strade Bianche. The race itself has a very limited history, only beginning in 2007, but it has quickly become a fixture. It will be a race of attrition, favouring the Ardennes specialists rather than the cobbles, but the 45 kms of white roads won't be easy for anyone.
It's not the high mountains or the particularly steep climbs of Tirreno-Adriatico, but Paris-Nice makes up for it with some really open, tough racing. Sprint stages can become crosswind stages, and attacks are launched anywhere and everywhere on the hilly stages. The really big names may be elsewhere, but there are still a lot of top-tier talent here to contest this race.
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AuthorI'm Jamie Finch-Penninger, better known as Fishy, the best DS to ever sit a couch. Anything which I don't cover for a bigger site will be up here. Archives
October 2015
CategoriesCome here for the previews of all the World Tour races this season, plus any Pro Continental/NRS/tricycle races that take my fancy. Along as it's pro cycling I'll have some sort of opinion on it. I'm Australian, so be prepared for a healthy Orica-Greenedge bias. Please feel free to request any changes or previews, and stay up to date on Twitter and Facebook.
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