Ineos Grenadiers will head into Milan-San Remo with a number of choices, as Filippo Ganna, Tom Pidcock, Elia Viviani, Ethan Hayter, and Michal Kwiatkowski line up for the British staff.
Ganna, the time trial world champion, has assumed a management position, each inside his staff and extra usually as Italy’s principal hope for Saturday’s race.
He’ll line up alongside Pidcock, the staff’s Classics chief who heads into his second Milan-San Remo with a slight query mark after a current sickness.
Viviani has completed high 10 at La Classicissima prior to now and presents a dash choice however himself has suffered with sickness prior to now week, whereas Hayter makes his debut within the race.
Kwiatkowski gained Milan-San Remo in 2017 and made it over the Poggio final 12 months however has since moved into extra of a supporting position, and it is the identical for Ben Swift, who completed on the rostrum in 2014.
The squad is rounded out by street captain Luke Rowe.
“You’ve acquired to think twice about ensuring assaults as a result of after you’ve raced for nearly 300 kilometres, something can occur and each element may be vital,” Ganna informed BiciPro not too long ago about La Primavera.
On Saturday ,the favourites to win the opening Monument of the 12 months are Tadej Pogačar (UAE Workforce Emirates), Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal). Final 12 months’s San Remo winner, Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) is out sick.
Ineos deliver riders who can cowl all of the completely different methods, from assaults on the Cipressa or the Poggio to a closing kick in a dash on the By way of Roma on the Ligurian coast.
However the race itself is very within the bullseye for any Italian rider. Viviani took his first win for Ineos on stage 1 in Provence, and together with Ganna used Tirreno-Adriatico on residence soil to arrange for the ultimate on By way of Roma. Nevertheless, Viviani pulled out of stage 6 with a excessive fever and what he referred to as “a powerful flu”. It might be Ganna’s day to shine.
Pidcock is one other rider on the staff who has been in poor health – a ‘abdomen bug’ took him out of Strade Bianche earlier than he made the beginning line – however he has been coaching within the Andorra area in current days. Kwiatkowski has solely had eight days of racing to this point this 12 months, ending within the pack at Milano-Torino.
Final 12 months Pidcock and Kwiatkowski have been a part of the Ineos contingency in a big lead group that held throughout the Poggio, led up the climb by Ganna. Nevertheless, they didn’t take dangers on the descent, and completed fifteenth and seventeenth, respectively, with Ganna trailing in sixty fourth.
