Milan – San Remo 2024: on the verge of breakdown, Alaphilippe receives support and can believe in it

“Milan – San Remo 2024: on the verge of breakdown, Alaphilippe receives support and can believe in it”

The return of Milan – San Remo in 2024 is also the return of questions about the fitness of Julian Alaphilippe. Little saved and in crisis with his manager, the Frenchman must prove on the Primavera that he still weighs between Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar.

The shores of the Mediterranean are often an invitation to explore. relaxation, a place where it is good to live under a generous sun. They are also a promise. With Milan – San Remo they augur a cycling season which really restarts, taking its most exciting turn, heralding the month of Classics where madness and pieces of bravery combine against a backdrop of legends.

Located at the crossroads of winter and spring, the Primavera Milan – San Remo serves as a curtain raiser, the first act of a play counting five. An anachronistic race, ode à languor and &agrav; patience for almost 300 km. Certainly, the organizers have cut him some slack. 6 kilometers to make it the shortest edition since 1981, but taming its 288 km won't be easy. eacute;. Because if it is the easiest Classic à win, Milan – San Remo is also the most elusive, through the acceptance of its character and its melody.

Alaphilippe "is not finished"

Of the many contenders for this Milan – San Remo 2024, who will set off from Pavia this Saturday March 16, Julian Alaphilippe is not among the favorites and seems destined to ; attend à the battle at the level of a simple spectator. It must be said that the double world champion has lost his splendor. Formerly pack leader of the Soudal Quick-Step, he abandoned the pack. this role à Remco Evenepoel. Above all, he multiplied poor performance and chained the falls, as again recently at Het Nieuwsblad, attracting the wrath of his manager Patrick Lefevere, particularly acerbic in the media. against him.

Yet in the absence of the Belgian, concentrated; on the preparation of other objectives such as the Tour de France, Alaphilippe will be the leader of his team between Lombardy and Liguria. Milan – San Remo will be another chance to show that he still has something under his belt. What former Belgian world champion Philippe Gilbert believes. “There are a lot of people who say that Julian doesn't put one foot in front of the other anymore. I have a tendency to defend it, it's not finished", assures the one who has been around him' the Frenchman between 2017 and 2019. Five years ago, Gilbert had worked perfectly on his skills. to prepare the ground for Alaphilippe, who then raised arms at the end of via Roma, his first Classic.

Towards a van der Poel-Pogacar duel ?

If the tricolor puncher already has tamed sleeping beauty &agrav; At the peak of his career and hopes to defy the predictions, he knows full well that he will have to take advantage of a little help to impose itself as the balance of power is no longer in its favor. Indeed, for Milan – San Remo 2024, eyes are turned, once again, to Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar. The two pyrotechnicians had been killed. the big leaders of the race in 2023, the second dynamiting the finale in the ascent of Poggio, before seeing the first leave him company, & the favor of the descent, and go up to the victory.

Can they do it again this year? It's all up to date. believe that they hold the fate of this 115th edition of Milan – San Remo in their wheels. The outgoing winner makes his return to the road and will thus be able to wear his world champion jersey for the first time in 2024. However, don't think that # 39;he runs after form. His winter was studious to say the least since he crushedé cyclo-cross races and won a new world title.

For his part, the Slovenian jostled his habits and does not introduce himself to others. Milan – San Remo with only one day of racing in the legs. At the Starde Bianche, he had set fire to the dirt roads of Tuscany, offering a solitary escape of 80 km, without anyone being able to dispute it. A way of marking one's territory before tackling a challenge that still resists him. Enough to whet his appetite a little more.

Milan – San Remo 2024 may be played elsewhere, who knows. Behind, the two men, the competition questions. Used to in the places of honor, Wout van Aert declined; his participation, busy &agrav; prepare for the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. Without the Belgian, the Jumbo-Lease a Bike will rely on the Frenchman Christophe Laporte. We will also have to keep an eye on the 2022 winner Matej Mohoric, but also the Italian Alberto Bettiol, author of a demonstration during the last Milan-Turin, the Dane Mads Pedersen or the two Ineos-Grenadiers riders Filippo Ganna, not far from the mark in 2023, and Tom Piddcock. The sprinters will have their say; say if they manage to achieve this resist the promised explosion in the middle of the greenhouses which adorn the Poggio, overlooking San Remo.

The 115th edition of Milan-San Remo will leave from Pavia, a city located near the city. about forty kilometers south of Milan è 10:15 a.m. Arrival at San Remo is scheduled for around 4:47 p.m., according to the most optimistic predictions of the organizers.

The 115th edition of the Primavera, the first of the Monuments of the cycling calendar, will be broadcast in full. on Eurosport 2 with an antenna connection scheduled from 9:50 a.m.

The Milan – San Remo 2024 route was completed route between Pavia, for an unprecedented departure, and San Remo for a distance of 288km. This is the shortest edition in 43 years and the one won by the Belgian Fons De Wolf.

The program, however, remains unchanged. Back in 2023, after two years without being borrowed, the Passo del Turchino confirms its return to the race as first place in the race. ere difficulty &agrav; to face for runners after 138.3 km. Behind, you will have to pass through the chain of Capi, the Capo Mele (km 236.4), the Capo Cervo ( km 241.3), the Capo Berta (km 249.1) before the diptych Cipressa (km 266.3 – 5.6 km 4, 1%)-Poggio di San Remo(km 282.4- 3.7km 4%, maximum slope 8%) %).

Outgoing winner, Mathieu van der Poel establishes himself as the favorite & his own estate. The Dutchman's main rival will be the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, author of a show of force during the Strade Bianche. Behind them, a crowd of outsiders is ready to attack. take advantage of a failure. We can distinguish the Italians Alberto Bettiol and Filippo Ganna, the Briton Tom Pidcock, the Dane Mads Pedersen, the French Julian Alaphilippe, Christophe Laporte, Arnaud Démare and Benoît Cosnefroy, the Pole Michal Kwiatkowski or even the Slovenian Matej Mohoric.

Note the absence of Wout van Aert. Winner in 2020, the Belgian is doing an internship in the Canary Islands where he he prepares the Flandrian Classics and in particular the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.