The 2015 Spring Classics season is officially underway. On a rainy afternoon on the Mediterranean coast last Sunday, John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) dashed to victory in Milan-San Remo, taking his first victory in one of the sport’s five Monuments. In this gallery we share a collection of great images from “La Primavera”, captured by husband and wife duo Jered & Ashley Gruber, with additional photos from Cor Vos.
The list of potential winners of this year’s Milan-San Remo was about as long as the race itself. And while John Degenkolb was certainly among the favourites, more attention was being paid to the likes of Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo), Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge), Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) and last year’s winner, Alexander Kristoff (Katusha).
As much as it’s possible for someone of Degenkolb’s ability to go unnoticed, the 26-year-old just about did so until the final few kilometres of the race. His name was barely called by commentators until he was spotted in a lead group of roughly 25 riders that began the flat final 2km together.
Degenkolb timed his run to perfection, surging past a tiring Kristoff in sight of the line and holding off Matthews.
And while Degenkolb’s win was the culmination of the day’s proceedings, there were plenty of moments in the 293km and nearly seven hours of racing that helped define the 2015 Milan-San Remo. Here are some of those moments.
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- Australian Nathan Haas spent much of last year’s Milan-San Remo in the breakaway. This year he remained in the peloton and made it into the lead group in the finale. He ended up 28th, six seconds behind Degenkolb.
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- World champion Michal Kwiatkowski had a luckless day. He made all the right moves but crashed while descending the Poggio.
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- It’s been a few years since we’ve had good weather at Milan-San Remo. It rained for most of Sunday’s race, only drying up in the last hour or so of racing.
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- The race reached the Mediterranean coast after roughly 150km and with more than 140km still to go.
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- Fans let off flares as Team Sky leads the peloton. Salatore Puccio would slip out on a descent a short time later, splitting Luke Rowe, Geraint Thomas and Ben Swift off the front of the peloton.
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- Lars Boom ended up finishing more than a minute back. Watch for him in the cobbled classics in the weeks to come.
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- Daniel Oss attacked on the flat section of road between the last two climbs of the day: the Cipressa and the Poggio. He was joined by Geraint Thomas and the pair would catch the last rider in the day’s 11-rider breakaway: Matteo Bono (Lampre-Merida).
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- On the slopes of the Poggio, with 8km left, Thomas attacked Oss and and rode away solo.
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- Thomas would eventually be caught at the top of the Poggio.
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- No sooner had Oss been caught by the bunch than Philippe Gilbert attacked.
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- The counter-attack came from Greg Van Avermaet who slipped clear and soon caught Thomas.
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- With only a couple of kilometres left to race, Peter Sagan rolled off the front of the peloton …
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- … and opened up a small gap. The Slovakian champion decided to bide his time though, and sat up.
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- But ultimately it was John Degenkolb who took the win, overhauling a tiring Alexander Kristoff. Michael Matthews was third while Peter Sagan was fourth.
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- Philippe Gilbert was among a number of the favourites to crash on the Poggio descent. Michal Kwiatkowski also fell, as too did 2013 winner Gerald Ciolek.
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- Despite struggling on the Cipressa and barely hanging on to lead group, Alexander Kristoff stayed in contention and looked like he might take a second consecutive win in Milan-San Remo. He would have to settle for second.
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- Sunday’s victory was the biggest win in the career of John Degenkolb. Given he’s just 26 years old, there are bound to be plenty more big victories for the German.