UAE and Tim Wellens promise another attempt at winning Milano-Sanremo: "Next year we will come back to win"
CyclingSaturday, 16 March 2024 at 20:30
UAE Team Emirates has pushed and ruled over Milano-Sanremo today, from all the pace forcing to attacking. They didn't succeed with their master plan however, and Tim Wellens admits there were problems that led to this.
"Did we start too early? I don't think so, but the problem is that we had already eaten up a lot of men for the Cipressa. The plan was to charge up the Cipressa with two riders, but there was only one and he fell a bit silent," Wellens said in words to VTM. UAE pushed up the Tre Capi, but entered out of position in the Cipressa. Some firepower was lacking when they wanted to keep a high pace all throughout the climb, and Wellens himself picked it up towards the summit.
The team only had two riders at the bottom of the Poggio, and Wellens was being saved for later in the ascent. "We should have gone a little faster to thin out the group for the Poggio. It was not the plan to increase the pace on the first of the three Capi. You have to be able to restrain yourself, but afterwards it is easy to talk," he admits. This ultimately meant that there was a limit to the damage one could do in the final climb, and Pogacar's attempts were not successful in creating the winning move.
Ultimately he fininshed third, whilst Wellens himself let the group go after giving it his all to make the race incredibly hard. However he admits that the team will most likely return, and try to make the race work in their way to perfection. "Milano-Sanremo is the most difficult Monument for Tadej to win. Every year he is close, next year we will come back to win," he concluded.
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- Lets not forget it's a 3 week race and Del Toro doesn't have a track record of doing these long GTs. All it takes it one bad moment on a climb to blow up.frieders323-05-2025
- I like this young man, if he is feeling good he should go for it on the next mountain stage.awp23-05-2025
- Team politics are terrible, I suspect that the team management knows who the strongest is on UAE in this Giro, Juan Ayuso is a great young athlete but he wobbles all the time. I figure UAE will go with who feels better. If del Toro feels good the team will probably back him. To hear Isaac say he stopped riding to wait for Ayuso because it was the right thing to do, made me upset. I know we are only fans but we want to see the strongest win.awp23-05-2025
- Froome was, in my book, the greatest Grand Tour rider ever. Better than Armstrong, better than Induarain. It all ends in a second for these guys. I remember that whenever people complain about Pogacar, and I am grateful.
Barney23-05-2025 - Tom retired instead of signing another contract. Visma offered him a contract renewal, he decided to retire which shocked everyone because he is such a strong cyclist.awp23-05-2025
- "North American"adammyerson22-05-2025
- The more statements that came out from his mouth, the more I'm impressed with how he carries himself.
KerisVroom22-05-2025 - What has it to do with us. It's between him and his employer. The crap about him having plenty money is irrelevant.Sabino22-05-2025
- lol, he knows how not to get into trouble with his teammates.KerisVroom22-05-2025
- They use English as their common language but it doesn't mean they speak it well. I hope this kid gets a chance to go for it, he too could win.awp22-05-2025
UAE messed up. They needed to go hard on the Cipressa and drop the sprinters, ~20 man group, Keep the pace high in the valley to prevent the rejoining of the sprinters which they didnt, and then explosive pace on the Poggio which with one rider they couldn't. Cipressa- 5 riders, Valley - 3 riders Poggio - 2 riders excluding Pog was what was required.
Well, in theory and that would probably have killed off the sprinters but not VDP who had enough in the tank at all times to deal with everyone’s attacks. So in the end it would have been like the teaser we got with Pogi and him « soloing » but still Pogi having to do all the work to be sure the sprinters couldn’t return and VDP happy to sit in his wheel. An upgrade to 2nd but still no win.
And then of course Cosnefroy wouldn’t have been caught napping ;-))))
Two things I disagree with.
How many riders did Alpacin need to win?
Paris-Roubaix will probably be harder for him to win
A very good race, by everyone. I think the time will come when people realise that despite it looking boring, this race is severely underappreciated. It is the most variable in terms of who can and does win and it can be played in many ways, none of which can be predicted by looking at the starting list. In the end, not easy to win AT ALL so don’t fret Pogi.
Chapeau to sprinter JP to be able to keep up with the best for 300k plus hills at that speed before sprinting but let’s not forget that he got 2nd at Paris-Roubaix too, he’s come a long way since earning his nickname.