Time to get OFF the bike?

   What could be more in the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day than getting up early to watch Milan-San Remo? Practically anything, I guess. However, I have Nolands and McKennas in my family tree, so I made sure to put on my Irish national team rugby shirt this morning before I sat down to view the first of cycling’s spring classics.

   I found a link to Eurosport’s coverage of the race at Steephill.tv, but I was quite surprised to find some sort of delay was going on. I went to cyclingnews.com to find a text update and saw a strange comment about what goes on during “race halftime”, so I knew something was wrong. Turns out the weather was so cold and nasty, including freezing rain and snow at some of the higher elevations, that the race directors packed up everything part way along the route and moved everyone to restart closer to the finish, where conditions were just wet.

   Among the text updates was a comment from Twitter posted by Keon De Kort, a Dutch cyclist from the Argos Shimano team, “It's snowing so much this could be biathlon. If so, can I be shot first?” Shortly after that, an ice-covered Taylor Phinney posted a photo (below) of himself aboard the BMC team bus. I really dislike riding in wet or cold weather, and I’m not being paid thousands of dollars to do so, but I certainly didn’t blame some stars, such as Tom Boonen and Vincenzo Nibali, who decided to pack it in after being exposed to those kind of conditions!

 

   Milan-San Remo has in the past been more of a sprinters race, until organizers added a couple larger hills a few years ago in an effort to make things more challenging. The weather-induced detour was going to eliminate some of these hills, and the commentators assumed a drag race for the finish line was in the cards. I suspect, however, that the earlier conditions put the hurt on the peloton more than they suspected, and the teams with sprinters interests had a hard time keeping everything together.

   The finale turned out to be quite exciting with British road champion Ian Stannard and former French champ Sylvain Chavanel gaining a late gap, and a small group that included race favorites Peter Sagan and Fabian Cancellara trying to chase them down. Gerald Ciolek, a man who once served as lead out for Mark Cavendish, was the best pure sprinter left, and the German wisely made Sagan and Cancellara do all of the work to catch the breakaway duo with just a couple kilometers left.

   Sagan has proven in the past that he can hang with the top speedsters, but, perhaps remembering Chavanel’s surprise sprint victory in a stage of Paris-Nice last week, he made a move way too early in response to the Frenchmen’s initial jump. After a quick move onto Sagan’s wheel, Ciolek took advantage of the young Cannondale rider’s slipstream and slingshotted by, just a few meters from the line to win.

 

 

   Ciolek's victory is evidence of pro cycling's current global presence as his MTN- Qhubeka squad became the first Africa-based team to win a World Tour race. Teammate Jim Songezo is the first black cyclist from an African nation to compete in the 106-year-old race. Sue and I were contemplating the economic obstacles cyclists from most African countries must overcome, let alone availability of bicycles or the lack of paved roads in some of those areas. I bet there are some places in which you would definitely not want to be "caught" wearing the jersey pictured below!