Alberto Bettiol leads EF Education-EasyPost at Milano-Sanremo as Neilson Powless misses out

EF Education-EasyPost will have high hopes for Milano-Sanremo after the impressive victory for Alberto Bettiol at Milano - Torino earlier this week.

The first monument of the year, many of the peloton's big stars will be present at the startline on the 16th of March including Tadej Pogacar, Mathieu van der Poel, Tom Pidcock and Mads Pedersen. For EF Education-EasyPost, Bettiol leads with the team completed by the likes of Andrey Amador, Jonas Rutsch, Marijn van den Berg, Harry Sweeny, Yuhi Todome, and Michael Valgren.

Notable by his absence in that lineup however, is Neilson Powless. The American revealed earlier this year that he had targeted Milano-Sanremo as one of his chances for a big win this season. "I will have to be more aggressive in Milan-San Remo . However, it remains a long race, in which you have to manage your energy well, so that you can be explosive in the final. I'm going into the classics with a lot of confidence, I hope I can do better than last year," Powless told In de Leiderstrui.

Sadly, after crashing out of Tirreno-Adriatico on stage 6, the 27-year-old has been unable to recover in time to make the startline this weekend.

Alberto Bettiol, Andrey Amador, Jonas Rutsch, Marijn van den Berg, Harry Sweeny, Yuhi Todome, and Michael Valgren.