And as often happens, when someone is too much of a favorite, they don't win. This time to seize the opportunity and take home the Milan-Sanremo number 112 is Jasper Stuyven. The Belgian of the Trek-Segafredo, as he said CioniHe seized the moment. He didn't steal anything and he really pulled off a great move. Kudos to him!
Surprise attack
It took the giant from Leuven a while to win his first Monument, at least by today's standards. He's the venerable age of 28. But its growth has been constant and it is certainly not a shooting star. His palmares includes races such as the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad or a stage at the Vuelta.
In the end, he was surgical. Cool. The radio told him he had to try, and he didn't need to be told twice. When Kragh Andersen caught him again, he didn't panic. At that point, he didn't even listen to the radio anymore and did it all by himself. It was easy to lose your temper with an opponent catching you with 1.200 meters to go and all the super phenomena just a few seconds behind. Stuyven, on the other hand, tried to save as much as possible, as if saving was possible, and then unloaded all his horses.
After arriving, he falls to the ground, exhausted. He can't believe it. The team doctor, Nino Daniele, immediately assists him. Then, little by little, everyone else passes by. Starting with Nibali who gives him a sincere high five.
Nerves of steel
"I knew," Stuyven said, "that everyone on the Poggio was waiting for one of those three to make a move. My goal at that moment was to stay there. And I did it, but the sprinters had done it too, so I told myself I had to try downhill to win. My teammates were gone, the three favorites were even faster than me, so I gave it my all. I think those were the hardest kilometers of my life."
But Stuyven created his true masterpiece not only on the asphalt, but also in his mind. Thinking in certain situations is not easy, doing so when you have almost 300 kilometers in your legs is an almost impossible task, especially with the adrenaline of running in your blood. Listen up.
«When I left I thought that precisely because those three were there it could be the right moment. Both they and I knew that the first one to finish would lose the race. And so it was. Then when Kragh Andersen arrived, he tried to raise the stakes a bit, and I struggled a lot there. I thought about limiting the damage."
Jasper lives in Monte Carlo. He knows the Sanremo finale well, but due to Covid, he'd only been there four times in the last year. Two of those, however, were in the last week.
"Just to review the route a bit. This year I started a little slower, I wanted to gradually improve, and I succeeded. I have to say that this week in particular I felt really good." And in fact, just the night before, Trek-Segafredo had assigned the roles, and Stuyven was one of the two captains, the other was Nibali.
Nobody is unbeatable
Shouts of joy can be heard from the Trek-Segafredo bus. Two of them arrive with a bottle of sparkling wine in their hands, taken directly from the podium. Each rider who arrives hugs the other and all the staff. The guys of Guercilena they knew they were not favored and perhaps for this reason they spent less mental energy than the others.
The high speed may have even helped them. Ultimately, it was an "easy" race to control.
"True," says Stuyven, "it was a very fast race, and there wasn't a dominant team, even in the final kilometers. Many of us reached the entrance to the Cipressa. Then, on this climb, the pace was still very high, and no one was able to move. We were really going too fast.
"Does it bother me that I wasn't among the favorites going into the race? No, given how those three performed at the Tirreno, it was only natural that they were being talked about. Yes, they are probably stronger than me in one-on-one situations, but today I proved that no one is unbeatable."
And maybe that's the beauty of cycling. Tactics and mentality still matter.
