Unsurprisingly, after their successes in Tirreno-Adriatico, the Liquigas-Cannondale will be co-captained by Vincenzo Nibali and Peter Sagan in Saturday’s Milano-Sanremo. Both riders took a tough stage victory apiece, with Nibali securing the race overall in the final day’s time trial, which shows that both are currently in good form. Nibali will doubtless be looking to use his climbing prowess, and especially his descending skills, on the coastal Capi in the final stages of the race; while Sagan will be able to use similar tactics, or choose to wait for a sprint.
In last year’s race, Nibali was one of the main protagonists on the Cipressa and Poggio, which pulled the decisive ten-man break clear. He was unable to compete with race-winner Matt Goss (then HTC-Highroad, now GreenEDGE) at the finish however, and will be keen to avoid allowing the likes of the Australian to keep up with him this time.
Four of the six men that supported Nibali and Sagan in the Race of the Two Seas will be present - in Valerio Agnoli, Maciej Bodnar, Kristjan Koren and Daniel Oss - along with Paolo Longo Borghini and Elia Viviani joining from the team’s line up at Paris-Nice.
“We choose the lineup on the basis of condition and characteristics, to best deal with every situation that could arise in the race,” said directeur sportif Mario Scirea, who will lead the team from the car along with Stefano Zanatta, and he knows exactly which riders his team will have to deal with in the 298km Classicissima.
“In Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice we saw a lot of contenders in really good shape, and their team were same. [Mark] Cavendish and Sky, Goss and GreenEdge, [Tom] Boonen and Omega Pharma-Quick Step, [Fabian] Cancellara and [Daniele] Bennati for RadioShack[-Nissan]… as well as them I’d add some highly-rated riders like [Katusha’s Oscar] Freire, [Garmin-Barracuda’s Heinrich] Haussler, [Lotto-Belisol’s André] Greipel that can hide themselves in race, and the group of outsiders.
“There will be a lot of variables in the race on Saturday, and we have to concentrate and to play our cards at the right moment,” Scirea added. “We have the riders and the motivation to be protagonists.”
While Nibali and Sagan will be the team’s two leading riders, the on-form Viviani and Oss will also be allowed to do their own thing during the race.
Liquigas-Cannondale team for Milano-Sanremo
Valerio Agnoli, Maciej Bodnar, Kristjan Koren, Paolo Longo Borghini, Vincenzo Nibali, Daniel Oss, Peter Sagan and Elia Viviani