Alaphilippe will be Soudal’s leader at Milan San Remo

The French Julian Alaphilippe will be the leader of Soudal Quick Step in the 115th edition of Milan San Remo which will take place this Saturday, the first of five “monuments” on the classics calendar.

Winner of the 2019 “classicissima”, Julian Alaphilippe will start for the seventh time in his career, with a strong team that includes Kasper Asgreen, Mattia Cattaneo, Josef Cerny, Gianni Moscon, Casper Pedersen and Luke Lampertithe young American neo-professional who debuted in San Remo after a disappointing start to the season.

The first monument will not start in the capital of Lombardy, Pavia, located about 40 kilometers from Milanis where the cyclists will gather on Saturday to begin what will be a 288 kilometer journey to the sunny Ligurian coast.

This long procession will come to life in the last 30 kilometers, when those who want to leave the sprinters will have the first opportunity to do so on the slopes of Cipressa.

From its summit there will be only 12 kilometers to the Poggio, the legendary Milano-Sanremo climb, where some of the most memorable moments of the race were written.

And if a small group stays together after the 3.6 km hill, there is always a technical descent, where some of the riders can try to make a difference before the iconic finish on the Via Roma.

“We will start Milan-San Remo with a lot of motivation. We know we are not the main favourites, but that doesn’t mean we won’t try to do our best to achieve a good result. “The race is six kilometers shorter than last year, but that doesn’t change anything and the decisive action should start in the last hour of the race,” said Soudal sports director Davide Bramati.