Puck Pieterse calls for even harder Women's Milano-Sanremo course: "I think the distance should be at least 200 kilometres"
Cycling
The first participation at Milano-Sanremo Women was a tough experience for all the ladies, but Puck Pieterse already calls for the race to be made even longer. And thus harder.
"The race was more fun than expected actually," Pieterse said about her experience at NOS afterwards. "Was it a difficult race to win? Definitely. There are many possible scenarios. I think that more riders, like me, had hoped that it would be a bit tougher. But yes, on the Poggio we didn't have enough riders left in the team to set the pace. I don't think the others either. This year a sprinter will win, but hopefully next year a climber will."
One way to make the race harder is to make the course longer. The women now ride 'only' 156 kilometres, while the men cover 289 kilometres. "I would definitely like it to be longer. The great thing about San Remo for men is that it is a long race. That makes the Poggio tough for them, but for us everyone arrived reasonably fresh. I think the distance should be at least 200 kilometres. But it could easily be longer. If we were on the bike for five, five and a half hours, that would be great."
Queen of Poggio
The men's race was decided on Cipressa where Tadej Pogacar, Mathieu van der Poel and Filippo Ganna obliterated the previous fastest ascent by more than 20 seconds. Therefore the Poggio became much more tactical. On contrary the women saved all their matches for the final obstacle on the course and that spelled the end to Ilaria Sanguineti's time of 7:07 from 2017.
During the reconnaissance of Milan-San Remo, Pieterse already came close with a time of 7:17, but in the race she went much faster. Pieterse arrived sixth at the top of the Poggio and recorded a time of 6:44. Just behind Pieterse are Chloé Dygert and Mavi Garcia now with the times 6:45 and 6:48. Whether she'll keep the title will depend on some more riders uploading their activity onto Strava, but in any case she'd be overtaken by just split seconds.
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- Good for him but not exactly the most competitive field, though better than what Froome would try ;-) Let’s wait and see if he can keep things up over time.Mistermaumau25-03-2025
- Huh? So when the men’s is boring and the women’s isn’t should they transfer money or how do you suggest to do things. Last I heard, it’s a bunch of mostly ageing chubby men who set the criteria for women’s races (and in most sports it’s still rather like how religions are run). Don’t think the girls are particularly against doing the same races as the men. Anyway, there’s a huge unjustified gap between 11% of and a difference of 11%. Doubt this happens at the Olympics.Mistermaumau25-03-2025
- C’mon, nobody has ever spoken of Ganna in the same breath as those two until a few months ago and he showed how close a thing it can be when he’s on form, nobody can know in advance what form Remco will have, his Olympic form would cause even Tadej problems, and Wout, well, we’ll just have to wait and see but you can’t really write him off in advance.Mistermaumau25-03-2025
- Quite true but I’d not rule MVDP out yet, am pretty sure he will still improve in climbing and maybe not every rival will do every edition so stars may still align. Ironically, all three and even Wout, would probably (at least 2 definitely) win all 5 if it wasn’t for the others.Mistermaumau25-03-2025
- MSR really did open the can of worms.... A personal view, of the three noted Tadej is most likely to get the set he has the skill, the talent and sheer bloody-mindedness to win everywhere. Yes the it'll all have to come right to pick up Roubaix and MSR but he's already proved himself on all terrain. I'd rate Remco's chances of getting the 5 fractionally higher than MVDP, he can climb so LBL/Lombardia as less of a problem but he's yet to prove himself on the other races and we don't know how well and how quick he'll get back to where he was after injury, this has been a long lay off. MVDP, I'd love to see him do it but I think Lombardia is too much of a stretch, the organisers will not create an "easier" route just to pull him in. I've said on other articles that I fear for Wout, I don't know that he is at the same level as MVDP and Tadej anymore, they have cranked the level up while Wout has been recovering from last years debacle. Will it happen who knows but it's going to be incredible to watch over the next couple of years!slappers6625-03-2025
- I think that when Caleb unleashed his sprint, he unleashed a couple of years of built up frustration as well.
santiagobenites25-03-2025 - The guy has changed teams so often they are not sure what one is currently his.Cyclingsbestfan25-03-2025
- Do you honestly not have a picture of Ewan in his correct team kit?JoBro25-03-2025
- that sounds right. at Roubaix, any of the strong riders who has better luck than the other elites can win. not the case at flanders, where THE strongest almost always wins. (which means rvv will be either tadej or mathieu.)OCexile25-03-2025
- Yes try riding same distances as themen as courses as hard. No point wanting same money if you are not putting the miles and same work in.paultryan200225-03-2025