Sam Bennett and Peter Sagan; both named in the Bora-hansgrohe team for Milan-Sanremo and both well capable of winning the first monument of the 2019 season.
Bora-hansgrohe has named its team for Milan-Sanremo and both Sam Bennett and Peter Sagan are in the line-up.
Unusually, the team has two riders who go to the start line on Saturday as genuine contenders.
Given Sagan’s past wins, few would bet against him winning La Primavera for the first time this weekend.
However, based on current form Sam Bennett will perhaps be the more fancied of the two team mates.
He has taken wins in every race he’s ridden so far this year. Bennett claimed his first victory of the new campaign off a Sagan lead-out at Vuelta a San Juan.
After that win he went on to claim a stage at UAE Tour. And he followed it up with two stage wins at Paris-Nice last week.
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If he can get up the Poggio without going to deep, and the race comes down to a sprint, there is a big prize on the line.
Our #Lineup for the first #Monument of the season, @Milano_Sanremo - #LaPrimavera this #Saturday @Sammmy_Be | @maciejbodnar | @MBurghardt83 | @jempy_drucker | @gatto_oscar | @Daniel87Oss | @petosagan
DS: Enrico Poitschke | Ján Valach#BORAhansgrohe #Lineup #MSR pic.twitter.com/h2tlkpCvsV
— BORA – hansgrohe (@BORAhansgrohe) March 19, 2019
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Bennett said in the off-season the only goal he hadn’t achieved last year was winning a one-day WorldTour race.
Taking a monument, the only one the pure sprinters can win, would catapult him to the very top of the sport, though he is much of the way there already.
Sam Bennett has ridden the race three times. He has never been in the shake-up for victory.
However, the last time he rode it was in 2017 and he has transformed as a rider since then.
The frequency and quality of his victories have been on an upward trajectory for the past two years.
His form in these first couple of months of the new season has been better than ever. And he goes into Saturday a genuine contender.
Sagan is in a different position; with a proven track record in the race but yet to click into top gear this season.
He said after Tirreno-Adriatico that that race would bring him on and everything would be right for Saturday.
While that remains to be seen, he first rode Milan-Sanremo back in 2011 as a 21-year-old and showed his potential immediately.
He was 17th that year and has since finished in the top 10 every year bar 2016, when he was 12th.
His best result in the race is 2nd, in both 2013 and 2017 – to Gerald Ciolek (MTN-Qhubeka) and Michał Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) respectively.
The dream for Bennett would be a slightly off-best Sagan offering a lead-out in the final stages. Whether that’s too much to ask only time will tell.
Sam Bennett and Peter Sagan; both riders who could win this Saturday at La Primavera.
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