Ciolek Wins Milan-San Raino

The traditional image of the Spring Classics is one of a select group of hard-men, toughing it out against each other and battling the harsh early season weather.  They say cycling has changed in recent times, and maybe they are right.  As now when the going gets tough, the tough take a bus. 

The forecast for Milan-San Remo was for cold and rain.  The rain got so cold, it turned into some kind of white solid.  This took the organisers by surprise

Due to the snow on the climbs, they rapidly came up with a plan to keep nobody happy.  So after plugging away in the snow for a bit, the peloton stopped, took a bus ride for a while, and then carried on again. Well most people started again, Tom Boonen was amongst those who didn’t fancy getting off a nice toasty bus to ride bikes in the rain.  For those that soldiered on, there was only a mere 135 km or so left to cover, and the toughest climbs had been skipped.  Good news for those pure sprinters.  It was still a bit grim though and the treacherous conditions saw my Classics dark horse hope Geriant Thomas hit the deck on a descent.  I still had some men left though, and things were looking good when Ian Stannard and Sylvain Chavanel were away over the top of the Poggio.

 

Pre-race favourite Peter Sagan went after them on the descent, and brought Cancellara, Paolini and Ciolek with him. Somehow they managed to stay upright, and caught the leading pair. There were now four Bile Beans in a six-man move, things were looking good, but the win was not to be mine.  Gerald Ciolek showed that he may be riding for the “Who the fuck are MTN-Qhubeka?” team, but he’s a pretty good sprinter, as he beat Sagan to the line to take his first Classics win.

 

A pretty good day for the Bile Beans then, and I’m off with one of my trademark early leads. 

Rank		Team	Directeur	Score
1		Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	136
2		KLOEFEKAPPERS	Jan Van Belleghem	121
3		Rouleurs	tdm911	113
4		synergy	Adrian Leggett	110
5		Evil Chanbots	Danny Chan	106
6		Fulgas	Vincent Lavallee	92
7		ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	89
8		vicarious victors	eddy wu	88
9		Caffe Americano	Sherwood	68
10		Mungo Cycling	Mungo	54
11		Bodged blaggards!	Warwick Anderson	20

We don’t have long to wait for the next set of scores though, with the Dwars dor Vlaanderen coming up on Wednesday.  It’s a Cat 2 race in the Velogames world, so not as many points on offer, but still not to be sniffed at.  Is it time for some transfers?  Or should you save them for later?  Don’t ask me.