Milan – Sanremo 2011

Milan – Sanremo 2011
Host country	Italy
Competition period	March 19, 2011
overall length	298 kilometers
Starting field	198 in 25 teams (156 of which arrived at the finish)
winner
Overall rating	1. Matthew Goss 6:51:10 h 2. Fabian Cancellara same time 3. Philippe Gilbert same time
course
← Milan – Sanremo 2010	Milan – Sanremo 2012 →

The 102nd cycling classic Milan – Sanremo took place on March 19, 2011. It was part of the UCI World Tour 2011 and was the fourth race within it. The total distance of the race was 298 kilometers, making it the longest one-day professional race of the 2011 season.

The participants

Participating teams

ProTeams Quickstep Omega Pharma Lotto Saxo Bank SunGard ag2r La Mondiale Lampre ISD Liquigas-Cannondale Pro team Astana Leopard Trek Rabobank Vacansoleil DCM Katyusha Euskaltel-Euskadi Movistar team Sky ProCycling BMC Racing Team Garmin-Cervélo HTC highroad Team RadioShack Professional Continental Teams Acqua & Sapone Androni Giocattoli Cofidis, le Crédit en Ligne Colnago-CSF Inox Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli FDJ Geox-TMC

The 18 ProTeams were entitled to start . In addition, the organizer RCS MediaGroup gave wildcards to seven Professional Continental Teams , including the Italian teams Acqua & Sapone , Androni Giocattoli , Colnago-CSF Inox and Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli . Each team competed with eight drivers.

The favorites before the start were last year's winner Óscar Freire , Alessandro Petacchi , winner of the 2005 race, Mark Cavendish , winner of 2009 and Tyler Farrar and his Garmin-Cervélo team-mates Thor Hushovd and Heinrich Haussler . Last year's runner-up Tom Boonen , Allan Davis , runner-up in 2007, Daniele Bennati , Robbie McEwen and Juan José Haedo were also considered noteworthy if there was a mass sprint. But it also seemed possible that professionals like classic specialist Philippe Gilbert , Filippo Pozzato , Fabian Cancellara or Danilo Di Luca could leave the field behind with an attack. For the German André Greipel it was the first participation in this race. Other promising German starters included Linus Gerdemann and Fabian Wegmann .

The distance

The peloton once again led the traditional route over almost 300 kilometers, making it the longest one-day race of the year. After starting at the Duomo in Milan , the initially mostly flat path led over 140 kilometers through the Po plain to the Mediterranean . Before arriving at the coast, the Passo del Turchino was the first and, at 14 kilometers, the longest ascent of the “Classicissima”. The tunnel passage at the end of the pass has always represented the transition from winter to spring. The next test for the participants was the mountain “Le Mànie”, which, however, was also too far from the goal to make a decision. This was followed by three smaller hills called "Capi", until the legendary climbs Cipressa (crossing approx. 30 kilometers before the finish) and Poggio di Sanremo (twelve kilometers before the finish) the decision was made whether it was a mass sprint or a solo arrival would come. Finally, the participants awaited the descent from Poggio and the finish in Sanremo .

Race course

Even before the start, the Japanese national champion Takashi Miyazawa remembered the victims of the ongoing catastrophe in Japan with a national flag . It was also Miyazawa who initiated the breakaway group of the day around 15 kilometers after the sharp start, in which the Italian Alessandro De Marchi from Androni Giocattoli , Michail Ignatjew from Russia ( Katjuscha ) and the Belgian Nico Sijmens from Cofidis, le Crédit en Ligne to lead. The maximum lead of the quartet was over 13 minutes, but after the pace work of the field, the group was overtaken at the front of the race after more than 200 kilometers. Shortly before that, however, there was a decisive scene: After numerous falls on the descent from Mànie, the field split up, including world champion Thor Hushovd , fellow favorites Mark Cavendish and Tyler Farrar and last year's winner Óscar Freire , who himself fell was. At the Cipressa, both groups split further: Jaroslaw Popowytsch from the RadioShack team attacked from the top field , but was caught again before the summit of the climb. Michele Scarponi of Lampre-ISD pulled away from the chasing group with Freire and closed the one-minute gap to the front in a solo run up to Poggio. At Poggio di Sanremo, Yoann Offredo and Steve Chainel from FDJ, along with Greg Van Avermaet from BMC Racing Team and Stuart O'Grady from Leopard Trek , worked out a half-minute lead. Then Van Avermaet attacked, leaving his runaways behind. Vincenzo Nibali meanwhile drove out of the chasing group and gradually caught up with the other three escapees Chainel, Offredo and O'Grady. The leading riders started the descent from Poggio at short intervals. Eventually Offredo, O'Grady, Scarponi, Alessandro Ballan and Matthew Goss as well as Nibali, Cancellara, Gilbert and Filippo Pozzato formed a group which Van Avermaet caught up with 2.5 kilometers from the finish. After none of the riders could attack decisively, Matthew Goss, as expected, prevailed in the following sprint and celebrated the greatest victory of his professional career. The Swiss Fabian Cancellara came second for Leopard Trek, ahead of the Belgian Philippe Gilbert from Omega Pharma-Lotto .

Final score

Result

	driver	nation	team	time
1.	Matthew Goss		HTC highroad	6:51:10 h
2.	Fabian Cancellara		Leopard Trek	same time
3.	Philippe Gilbert		Omega Pharma Lotto	same time
4th	Alessandro Ballan		BMC Racing Team	same time
5.	Filippo Pozzato		Katyusha	same time
6th	Michele Scarponi		Lampre ISD	same time
7th	Yoann Offredo		FDJ	same time
8th.	Vincenzo Nibali		Liquigas-Cannondale	+ 0:03
9.	Greg Van Avermaet		BMC Racing Team	+ 0:10
10.	Stuart O'Grady		Leopard Trek	+ 0:12

Web links

Commons : Milan-Sanremo 2011  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Milan – Sanremo 2011 in the Radsportseiten.net database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Preliminary report on Radsportnews.de
2. ↑ Route map on the official website