Vincenzo Nibali holds off the sprinters to take a stunning win at Milan-Sanremo



Vincenzo Nibali attacked on the famous Poggio climb and held a gap by mere metres to win his first Milan-Sanremo. 

Image result for vincenzo nibali milan san remo 2018
Vincenzo Nibali takes his monuments tally to three, having won two Giro Il Lomardia already
Photo credit: cyclingweekly.com
Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) came off the descent of the Poggio with seven seconds on a bunch of sprinters and emptied the tank in the final two kilometres of flat to win on the Via Roma.

 The Shark of Mesina becomes the first Italian winner of their home monument since Filippo Pozzato in 2006.

 Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) won the sprinters battle ahead of Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ), Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates), Jurgen Roelandts (BMC Racing), Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb), Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana), Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) and Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo).

The Race

A nine-man break went straight from kilometre 0 - Mirco Maestri and Lorenzo Rota (Bardiani-CSF), Engvy Kobernyak (Gazprom-RusVelo), Guy Sagiv and Dennis Van Winden (Israeli Cycling Academy), Sho Hatsuyama (Nippo-Vini Fantini-Europa Ovini), Charles Planet (Team Novo Nordisk), Matteo Bono (UAE Team Emirates) and Jacopo Mosca (Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia) - with the peloton in no mood to expend any unnecessary energy so soon into the exhaustive seven-hour race. The gap quickly opened up to close to seven minutes.

 The weather, which had been cold and rainy out of Milan and for a good proportion of the course, started brightening around 220km as the race got closer and closer to the mild shores of the Riviera. The break still had almost three minutes on the Quick-Step Floors and Team Sky driven peloton, but the conditions were looking more and more favourable for a sprint finish.

 The breakaway's advantage dipped under two minutes for the first time in 240km as the race moved into the final 50km over the successive climbs of Capo Mele and Capo Cervo. While still nine riders strong, the headwind and pace of the peloton was becoming too much to fend off.

 Maestri accelerated on the Capo Berta and broke the break into a leading group of four, as the gap to the peloton came crashing down to 35-seconds.

 The four on the front were eventually reeled in with 30km to go, just before the Cipressa, with Groupama-FDJ, Cofidis, Mitchelton-Scott, Bora-Hansgrohe and Astana all fighting for control of the peloton.

As Ignatas Konovalovas (Groupama-FDJ) set a controlling pace on the front, Milan-Sanremo debutant, Marcel Kittel, was dropped at the very start of the Cipressa. The German was only ever an outside favourite, but the climbing and incredible distance had proved far too much for a relative novice in this race.

 There were seven teams in formation heading towards the Poggio, with positioning all important as the gradient increases and road narrows.

 In the chaotic jostle for position, several riders failed to navigate a roundabout, with Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) coming off worse by far: hitting a bollard and flipping over his handle bars. It was truly sickening and is Cavendish's third race-ending crash this season.

 German champion Marcus Burghart (Bora-Hansgrohe) attacked first on the Poggio and was followed by Jean-Pierre Drucker (BMC Racing), but neither stayed away long.

 Having been sheltered by Bahrain-Merida colleague Matej Mohoric for the majority of the race thus far, Nibali launched his attack just before the crest of the Poggio with 7km to go and Nathan Haas (Katusha-Alpecin) was straight after him. 

 The Shark of Mesina quickly forged open an 11-second lead, as those behind looked to each other to take up the chase. Nibali was alone up front as he began the descend of the Poggio, with the gap looking more and more likely to prove decisive.

 Nibali came off the descent with seven seconds, with Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott), Sagan and Kwaitkowski leading a pedigreed bunch of sprinters in hot pursuit of the multiple Grand Tour winner.

 Nibali looked done in, gasping for air and dangling his tongue out of his mouth, like a blood hound chasing a hare.

The gap was closing by the moment but Nibali was still holding on and as the race came within 500 metres to go, the Italian was barely 100 metres ahead.

 In the most excruciatingly tense finish in recent memory, Nibali held off the chasing pack of sprinters by no more than 10 metres, as he won the race he grew up watching and dreamed of winning.

Milan-Sanremo 2018 Result

1. Vinceno Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) in 7-18-43
2. Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) 
3. Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ)
4. Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates)
5. Jurgen Roelandts (BMC Racing)
6. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe)
7. Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb)
8. Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana)
9. Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida)
10. Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo)

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