Answer The Survey And Find Out Who Will Be The Rider Of The Month

Who is the Rider of the Month?

Valverde

Sagan

Kwiatkowski

Gilbert

Quintana

Henao

Van Avermaet

Lampaert

Contador

Soler

 

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Impressions After a Week On the Cobbles

A week on the cobbles has just finished and Van Avermaet comes out confirming his class in one day races.
Nevertheless, I think he wasn't the strongest rider in the peloton, he was just the smartest.
Gilbert lost two races in which he was clearly the strongest, trying to ride in the Sagan's way, a spectacular way to ride but that is not paying back in 2017.
We have also to consider that in order to ride like Sagan you have to be extremely stronger than the other riders and not just in a very good shape.
Allow me now to focus on what happened today in Gent-Wevelgem: while Sagan and Terpstra were arguing, Van Avermaet and Keukeleire, remaining focused on the race, silently rode away.
Van Avermaet took an incredible win that embellishes his palmarés proving that you have to be smart to win without caring too much about pulling as the others or showing that you are the best in the peloton.
I think that Sagan learned a lot from Gent-Wevelgem 2017 and we will enjoy an incredible Ronde Van Vlaanderen.
In conclusion, I want to celebrate the only rider that this week (at Volta Ciclista a Catalunya) won conjugating show, class and cleverness: El Imbatido, Alejandro Valverde.

The Legend of Peter Sagan - Milano-Sanremo 2017

I've alwaye heared old people saying: "yes, nowadays there are good riders, but when there was Coppi..." or "but when there was Merckx...".
Nobody can say this anymore watching Sagan riding his bike.
Sagan is able to do romantic feat in a cycling dominated by technology and mathematics.
What he did on the Poggio during the 2017 Milano-Sanremo has been something that will remain in the history of this sport.
Milano-Sanremo in recent years has become a sprinter Classic and organizers where thinking about modify the route. This is not necessary anymore, you need champions, not route modifications in order to have great races again.
Yesterday the plot of all the romantic masterpieces was respected once again, the main hero didn't win, beaten by a clever and strong rider, the former World Champion before the Sagan's era.
I don't think this is the start of a new dualism, Sagan is simply The Hero and will have to face many different riders trying to defeat him.
Kwiatkowski deserved his Victory, he won in the only way he could against The Hero and will be remembered in the Milano-Sanremo winners list, but Sagan will be always remembered as The Legend and his presence in the Winners list of the various races will be just in the back burner.
Sagan doesn't know the cycling history, they say, It doesn't matter, It is more important making it.

Milano - Sanremo Preview

Next Saturday is the day of the Classicissima, the spring World championship.
The charm of this race is unique.
It is apparently the easiest of the World Tour calendar, but concretely is the hardest because is absolutely unpredictable. If you want to win the Classicissima you have to choose the correct strategy and you don't have time to adjust an eventual strategy mistake.
As part of the race is on the road made by the Ancient Romans, allow me a Latin quote that perfectly describes the strategy situation in which every rider will find himself: "electa una via, non datur recusus ad alteram".
This is exactly what happens during the Milano-Sanremo: If you choose to attack on the Poggio, you know you won't have enough energies to make a proper sprint.

Passed the Turchino you start a nice ride on the legendary and generally sunny Aurelia, does exist a better way to welcome the spring after a cold winter? That is the question.
The answer is not so easy, the kilometres on the Aurelia are an inexorable wait for the explosive final. You spend these long kilometres on the coast just revising your strategy, studying your opponents and praying. The Aurelia is the place of the soul for the riders starting the Classics campaign.
In such an unpredictable and enchanted race, every single rider can dream to succeed and this is exactly what happens at the start.
The start of Milano-Sanremo is the place of the secret desires.
Everybody dreams to win and, in the depths of  his soul, is adjusting his strategy. Even the last helper of the weakest team thinks about winning the Milano-Sanremo at the start, because history showed us that this has already happened and it will happen again.

Here you can find a quick recognition of a part of the Aurelia the riders are going to tread next Saturday.

Strade Bianche 2017

WHAT-A-RACE

This edition of Strade Bianche has been amazing! The rain made the race harder and just the true men survived 'till the end!

Kwiatkowski and Team Sky will remember for a long long time this victory, one of the best of his great career.

Nevertheless, two important facts emerge from this hard race characterized by this hard weather conditions:

1) It is important to underline that fighting for the victory there were just great World Tour Teams, none of the new teams were fighting for the victory in the end.

2) We can say the same about the riders, in this case it is partially different because a lot of good riders, among them the World Champion, weren't fighting in the final but there wasn't any Carneade.

The riders fighting for the final victory were all good riders representing solid World Tour Teams.

In a race like the one we assisted today there was no space for naive teams or riders, so congratulations to Team Sky and Kwiatowski, confirming themselves even in the hardest racing condition.

Rider of the Month: February

Congratulations Rui!!! You made it!!
Rui Costa  with an incredible 71% of the votes has been elected rider of the month.
It has been a sort of plebiscite the election of the February Rider of the Month.
The former world champion has brought the first win in a World Tour race to the brand new UAE Team Emirates.
The win arrived in a mountaintop finish, beating the best GT riders in the world. I can't imagine a better start for a new team and they have to thank this incredible rider.
Good luck for the rest of the season and we hope to see you again in this special classification!