Britain’s Mark Cavendish would be forgiven for harboring secret dreams of being crowned champion of the season’s first major one-day classic at Milan-San Remo today.
Though the normally ambitious Columbia team are keeping their real hopes for Cavendish in the 298km Italian epic under wraps, it could be argued that circumstances should allow the Manxman to dream on.
For starters, normally unstoppable Swiss tough man Fabian Cancellara — Saxo Bank’s defending champion — has pulled out with an infection.
PHOTO: EPA
Cancellara sprung the sprinters’ trap last year by pulling off the front with 2km to go and setting an unassailable pace all the way to the San Remo finish line, where Filippo Pozatto finished four seconds behind.
Two-time Milan-San Remo champion Oscar Freire of Spain has also been forced out because he is still nursing injuries suffered in a crash while racing in last month’s Tour of California.
Another world champion, Alessandro Ballan, has also upset his team’s plans although the Lampre rider, arguably, was not among the top five favorites for the race known as “La Primavera.”
Last year’s rainbow jersey winner pulled out of last week’s Tirreno-Adriatico and has been ordered to rest for two to three weeks — time that he would have spent honing his form for more realistic goals at the Tour of Flanders and Paris Roubaix.
Cavendish’s best chances of claiming what would only be Britain’s second win in Milan-San Remo — after the 1964 triumph of Tom Simpson — would be for the race to end with a bunch sprint.
After tackling the Tre Capi — a series of three big climbs — nerves will jangle by the time the peloton hits the 5.6km long Cipressa climb 27km from the finish.
It is Cavendish’s first participation and Columbia, understandably, are keen not to heap on the pressure.
“If he’s there in the front group after the [final climb of] Poggio, then of course the team will back him up 100 percent for the sprint,” sports director Valerio Piva said. “But if he’s not up there, it’s not the end of the world. This is his first San Remo and his main objective to get the experience of racing it.”
However, the temptation not to think big — and put everything into getting Cavendish to the front of the bunch after the Cipressa — must be preying on Columbia’s minds.
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