Milan – Sanremo 2015

Milan – Sanremo 2015
Racing series	UCI WorldTour  -  Category 1.UWT
Host country	Italy
Competition period	March 22, 2015
overall length	293 km
Starting field	200 from 33 nations in 25 teams (160 of which arrived at the finish)
winner
Overall rating	1. John Degenkolb (TGA) 6:46:16 h 2. Alexander Kristoff (KAT) same time 3. Michael Matthews (OGE) same time
← 2014	2016 →

The road cycling race Milan – Sanremo 2015 was the 106th edition of this classic and took place on March 22nd, 2015. As in the previous year, the race was held on a Sunday. The one-day race was part of the UCI WorldTour 2015 and within this the fourth of 28 races. It was also the first of five “monuments of cycling” for the 2015 season. The total distance of the race was 293 kilometers. The German John Degenkolb from the German team Giant-Alpecin won ahead of the Norwegian Alexander Kristoff from the Russian team Katusha and the Australian Michael Matthews from the Australian team Orica GreenEdge .

For John Degenkolb it was the first victory at Milan-Sanremo and also the first victory for him in one of the monuments of cycling. He was the fourth German professional, after Rudi Altig ( 1968 ), Erik Zabel ( 1997 , 1998 , 2000 , 2001 ) and Gerald Ciolek ( 2013 ), who won the race from Milan to Sanremo. So it was the seventh German victory in this race.

Attendees

overview

Overview of the participating teams

17 UCI WorldTeams Ag2r La Mondiale (ALM) Astana Pro Team (AST) BMC Racing Team (BMC) Etixx-Quick Step (EQS) FDJ (FDJ) IAM Cycling (IAM)	Team Katusha (KAT) Lampre-Merida (LAM) Lotto Soudal (LTS) Movistar Team (MOV) Orica GreenEdge (OGE) Team Sky (SKY)	Team Cannondale-Garmin (TCG) Tinkoff Saxo (TCS) Trek Factory Racing (TFR) Team Giant-Alpecin (TGA) Team Lotto NL-Jumbo (TLJ)
8 UCI Professional Continental Teams Androni Giocattoli (AND) Bardiani CSF (BAR) Bora Argon 18 (BOA)	CCC Sprandi Polkowice (CCC) Cofidis, Solutions Crédits (COF) Colombia (COL)	MTN-Qhubeka (MTN) Team Novo Nordisk (TNN)

The 17 UCI WorldTeams of the 2015 season were eligible to start . In addition, the organizer gave wildcards to eight UCI Professional Continental Teams . The 25 participating teams competed with eight drivers each. This resulted in a starting field of 200 drivers from 33 nations. Among the drivers were eleven Germans, two Austrians and five Swiss.

Favorites

The favorites to win the race included defending champion Alexander Kristoff (KAT), the 2009 winner, Mark Cavendish (EQS) and the 2008 winner, Fabian Cancellara (TFR), who last won four times in a row (2011-2014 ) was on the podium. Other drivers with a good chance of winning were John Degenkolb (TGA), Peter Sagan (TCS), Philippe Gilbert , Greg Van Avermaet (both BMC) and Michael Matthews (OGE). The extended circle of favorites also included Nacer Bouhanni (COF), André Greipel (LTS), Ben Swift (SKY) and Vincenzo Nibali (AST).

With Filippo Pozzato (LAM) ( 2006 ), Fabian Cancellara ( 2008 ), Mark Cavendish ( 2009 ), Matthew Goss ( 2011 ), Gerald Ciolek (both MTN) ( 2013 ) and Alexander Kristoff ( 2014 ) were a total of six former winners from Milan –Sanremo at the start.

route

Routing

There was only one change compared to last year's route. The destination was no longer on the Lungomare Italo Calvino in Sanremo , as had been the case in recent years. It was moved to Via Roma in Sanremo. The race there ended from 1949 to 1985 and from 1994 to 2007. This reduced the race distance by one kilometer from 294 kilometers to 293 kilometers.

In addition, another route change was planned. As in 2014, another increase, the Pompeiana increase, should be included in the program. However, due to landslides in this area and criticism from drivers and fans, this change was not implemented.

The race started on Via della Chiesa Rossa in the southwest of the city of Milan . The route went south from there. The first half of the course was relatively flat. At kilometer 134.7 the first refreshment zone was in Campo Ligure . Shortly afterwards, the first of six climbs followed at 143.0 km with the Passo del Turchino . This was the longest mountain of the day with a length of 8.2 kilometers. At its summit, the riders were at the highest point of the day at a height of 532 meters. A few kilometers later the drivers reached the town of Voltri and thus the Ligurian coast. From there it went along the coast towards the southwest or Sanremo. After a flat stretch of road, the second refreshment zone was in Ceriale at kilometer 223.2 . After that, there were three smaller climbs, the Capo Mele (at kilometer 241.3), the Capo Cervo (at kilometer 246.4) and the Capo Berta (at kilometer 254.3). This was followed by a 5.6-kilometer mountain at kilometer 271.5 in Cipressa . The last climb of the day was the Poggio di Sanremo at kilometer 287.5 with a length of 3.7 kilometers. This summit was 5.5 kilometers from the finish. A 3.2 kilometer long descent followed. The last 2.3 kilometers to the finish were flat again. The race ended after 293.0 kilometers on Via Roma in the city of Sanremo.

During the race, the provinces of Milan and Pavia in the Lombardy region , Alessandria in the Piedmont region and Genoa , Savona and Imperia in the Liguria region were crossed in chronological order .

Events

During the race six climbs were climbed and two refreshment zones were passed.

event	place	Kilometers from the start	Kilometers to the goal	height
begin	Milan (Via della Chiesa Rossa)	000.0	293.0	110 m
Refreshment zone	Campo Ligure	134.7	158.3	342 m
rise	Passo del Turchino	143.0	150.0	532 m
Refreshment zone	Ceriale	223.2	069.8	008 m
rise	Capo Mele	241.3	051.7	067 m
rise	Capo Cervo	246.4	046.4	061 m
rise	Capo Berta	254.3	038.7	130 m
rise	Cipressa	271.5	021.5	239 m
rise	Poggio di Sanremo	287.5	005.5	160 m
target	Sanremo (Via Roma)	293.0	000.0	005 m

Race course

Peloton in Savona

The race started at 10:10 a.m. in Milan. At the beginning of the race, temperatures were below ten degrees Celsius with continuous rain. The weather improved when the drivers reached the Ligurian coast. The roads then dried up by the end of the race.

The escape group of the day consisted of eleven drivers and had a maximum lead of ten minutes. It consisted of Julien Bérard (ALM), Tiziano Dall'Antonia , Marco Frapporti (both AND), Stefano Pirazzi (BAR), Jan Bárta (BOA), Adrian Kurek (CCC), Sebastián Molano (COL), Matteo Bono (LAM) , Serge Pauwels (MTN), Maarten Tjallingii (TLJ) and Andrea Peron (TNN). Three of these outliers were already part of the escape group in the previous year, these were Barta, Bono and Tjallingii. At the Passo del Turchino the lead over the peloton was five minutes, at Capo Mele, the second ascent, it was only two and a half minutes. The follow-up work in the main field was mainly done by the teams Trek, Katusha, Tinkoff-Saxo, Lampre and Etixx-Quick Step. The first driver to drop out of the top group was Sebastián Molano. At Capo Berta it consisted only of Bérard, Pirazzi, Bono and Pauwels. In the descent of this mountain, the teams Lotto Soudal, Codifis and Sky were now leading. When Sky was leading, Ian Stannard (SKY) fell, who was fourth in the peloton. His three teammates, Luke Rowe , Geraint Thomas and Ben Swift , who drove in front of him, were able to break away from the field. The three Sky drivers caught up with all of the outliers except for Matteo Bono.

On the rise of the Cipressa there were several attacks from the peloton. Silvan Dillier , Greg Van Avermaet (both BMC) and Zdeněk Štybar (EQS) tried to escape. Still on the mountain, however, all of the outliers were caught by the main field. Team Sky and Cancellara's teammate, Julián Arredondo (TFR), did the follow-up work during this phase. As a result, Alexander Kristoff (KAT) got into slight difficulties at the end of the field, but he was able to stay in the field. In the descent of the Cipressa, Daniel Oss (BMC) attacked, whom Geraint Thomas joined. On the ascent to Poggio di Sanremo, the field around the favorites was able to catch up again thanks to the leadership work of Luca Paolini (KAT) Daniel Oss. Among others, fellow favorite André Greipel (LTS) fell back. There were also further breakaway attempts by Greg van Avermaet, Julián Arredondo, Peter Sagan (TCS) and Michael Matthews (OGE). Thomas still had a slight lead over his competitors at the summit. Shortly afterwards they unlocked and drove again in a group. In the following descent, there was a fall in a still wet, slippery curve. Gerald Ciolek (MTN), Philippe Gilbert (BMC), Zdeněk Štybar and Michał Kwiatkowski (EQS) were affected and therefore had no chance of victory. The drivers in front of them reached the finish in a larger group. A sprint decision was made in which Luca Paolini put on the sprint for his teammate Kristoff, but Kristoff had to open the sprint too early. As a result, John Degenkolb (TGA) was able to overtake him before the home straight and win the sprint from the group of 26 ahead of Alexander Kristoff and Michael Matthews.

Result

UCI WorldTour

Milan – Sanremo was a 3rd category race within the UCI WorldTour 2015. This is why the ten best drivers - provided they drive for a UCI WorldTeam  - received points for the UCI WorldTour Ranking with the following points distribution:

Distribution of points

placement	1.	2.	3.	4th	5.	6th	7th	8th.	9.	10.
Points	100	80	70	60	50	40	30th	20th	10	4th

Final score

Of the 200 registered drivers, 199 started, of which 160 made it to the finish.

space	driver	nation	team	time	Points
01.	John Degenkolb	GER	Team Giant-Alpecin	6:46:16 h (43.272 km / h)	100
02.	Alexander Kristoff	NOR	Team Katusha	same time	080
03.	Michael Matthews	OUT	Orica GreenEdge	same time	070
04th	Peter Sagan	SVK	Tinkoff-Saxo	same time	060
05.	Niccolò Bonifazio	ITA	Lampre-Merida	same time	050
06th	Nacer Bouhanni	FRA	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	same time	-
07th	Fabian Cancellara	SUI	Trek Factory Racing	same time	030th
08th.	Davide Cimolai	ITA	Lampre-Merida	same time	020th
09.	Tony Gallopin	FRA	Lotto Soudal	same time	010
10.	Edvald Boasson Hagen	NOR	MTN-Qhubeka	same time	-

Web links

• Official website (Italian and English)
• Milano - San Remo 2015 in the Radsportseiten.net database
• 106th Milano-Sanremo (1st UWT) in the ProCyclingStats.com database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Milan-San-Remo-Winner Degenkolb: Who loves the classics. In: SPIEGEL ONLINE. SPIEGEL ONLINE GmbH , March 23, 2015, accessed April 5, 2015 . 
2. ↑ Milan - San Remo 2015: Favorites. In: Cyclingstage.com. Cyclingstage.com, accessed April 21, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Stephen Puddicombe: Milan-San Remo 2015: Who will win? In: Cycling Weekly. Time Inc. (UK) Ltd., March 19, 2015, accessed April 21, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Milan-San Remo 2015. In: Cycling News. Immediate Media Company Ltd., accessed April 21, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Felix Griep: Milan-Sanremo: No Pompeiana in 2015, new / old destination on Via Roma. In: LiVE-Radsport.ch. LiVE-Radsport, November 29, 2014, accessed April 21, 2015 . 
6. ↑ 106. Milan-Sanremo on the traditional route. In: radsport-news.com. Sport Aktiv Media GmbH, November 28, 2014, accessed on April 21, 2015 . 
7. ^ Christine Kroth: Preview 106th Milan - Sanremo. In: LiVE-Radsport.ch. LiVE-Radsport, March 22, 2015, accessed April 21, 2015 . 
8. ↑ Heike Oberfeuchtner: Milan-Sanremo: John Degenkolb sprints from a relatively large group to his first "monumental" victory. In: LiVE-Radsport.ch. LiVE-Radsport, March 22, 2015, accessed April 5, 2015 . 
9. ^ Daniel Hagen: Milan-Sanremo 2015. In: Radsport-Seite.de. Daniel Hagen, accessed April 21, 2015 . 
10. ↑ Results Milano-Sanremo (ITA / UWT) - 2015. (No longer available online.) In: uci.ch. Union Cycliste Internationale , March 22, 2015, archived from the original on April 19, 2015 ; accessed on April 18, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.