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Monument season begins with Saturday’s Milan-San Remo

Women's WorldTour gets back underway on Sunday with Trofeo Alfredo Binda

March 18, 2021
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The Monuments season gets underway on Saturday with the 112th edition of La Primavera, Milan-San Remo. Wout Van Aert, having taken two stage wins and the runner-up GC spot at Tirreno-Adriatico, stays in Italy to defend his title.

The race begins in the capital of Lombardy and heads southwest for 180 km until it hits the Ligurian Sea, climbing the Colle di Giovo just before the reaching the ocean. Due west are the three ‘Capi’ (Capo Mele, Capo Cervo and Capo Berta) before the famous Cipressa climb (5.6 km of 4.1 percent) that crests 22 km from the finish line on Via Roma in San Remo and the usually decisive Poggio ascent (3.7 km of 4 percent, maximum 8 percent). After the Poggio peak four kilometres of hairpin descending past greenhouses lead to the Via Roma climax.

The 299-km La Primavera.

For favourites it’s hard to look beyond Van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel and Julian Alaphilippe, the 2019 winner. Except for two stages of Tirreno-Adriatico, every time this trio race together one of them wins.

Alaphilippe’s first win of the season in Stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico.

If it comes down to a sprint between a dozen to 25 guys, Alaphilippe’s teammate Sam Bennett must be considered. Another Deceuninck-Quick Step contender is Davide Ballerini, the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad winner. Discount two-time podium man Michael Matthews (Australia/Team BikeExchange) at your peril.

The next day the Women’s WorldTour resumes with Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio, which was one of the cancellation victims of COVID-19 last season. Can SD Worx–once Boels-Dolmans–continue its impressive winning streak? The purple and red gang has won five 2021 races, including WorldTour opener Strade Bianche, with five different riders.

The 141-km route starts with a small circuit in which the field is introduced to the Orino climb, then a long lap beginning with the Casale climb, before four finishing circuits containing both Orino and Casale.

Someone who can stop SD Worx is reigning champ Marianne Vos of the new Jumbo-Visma squad.

Canyon-SRAM’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma, the 2018 winner, is always a threat. Trek-Segafredo has a strong trio in Lizzie Deignan, Elisa Longo Borghini and 2020-2021 cyclocross Grand Slam winner Lucinda Brand. No Canadians are on the provisional start list with three days until the race.