Milan-San Remo: Gerald Ciolek snatches victory on the line from Peter Sagan

stannard must be kicking himself! if only he had contacted all the armchair experts before the race he might have achieved a respectable result..

'given the option of sitting in and trying to out-sprint chavanel for fifth, or giving it everything and coming in sixth, i'd like to see *any* rider choose the latter'

This x a whole lot.

Can't quite believe I'm reading implied criticism of Stannard!

He rode beautifully.

In my opinion Stannard could have sat in that lead group and done no work and still would have come 6th. The only way he was going to win was alone. He looks in good form. Hopefully he will get a chance at Paris-Roubaix.

given the option of sitting in and trying to out-sprint chavanel for fifth, or giving it everything and coming in sixth, i'd like to see *any* rider choose the latter

So you all think 6th was the best he could have done?

Since I was asked, he should have allowed some of the others (Piolini, Cancellara, Sagan, Ciolek and maybe Chavanel) to press the agenda once they caught up. Once he recouped a bit his choice would either to try the sprint (which given his ability was inadvisable) or else strike for home with a sustainable long burst. Neither of which he did. He finished last out of the lead group because he rode the last five on the front. Chavanel did the right thing and finished ahead of him.....so he was either daft or naive.

I think he did well to have a go by creating his break, and up and until they looked like he was going to get caught, when it was just Chavanel and himself it was a really reasonable idea to try to get the win. But he didn't have a plan B after that. The others always had him in their pockets while he was out front blowing like a diesel.

A classic victory, a classical tactical move by Gerald Ciolek who rode the 'coat tails' of Sagan and Cancellara, after his success last week it's a victory well deserved and from photo evidence nicely (hugged Ciolek)congratulated to by Cancellara on the finish line.

Hats off to Cav who (wore shorts!)would have been up there if Chav faltered but Chav & Stannard animated that race in the final 15K.
Epic event had me on the edge of my seat.

Tactically naive? Nahhhh. Tactically resigned more like. Stannard had to push on - to try to tire those around him and to try to limit who he'd face in the sprint. He did the only thing he could do. Sitting on the back waiting for better sprinters to join you and reduce your odds whilst Chavenal breaks away wouldn't have helped.

Epic stuff and Sky's climbing speed is still shaking the peleton. The Giro will see if they can still dominate. I reckon Bertie's got a surprise in store.

I've seen Stannard do precisely the same thing at the end of other races. He gave it a go and the attack with 1.5K to go was his only option to win. I reckon he did extra work to keep the break clear so he was at least guaranteed 6th. But whatever he did he stood little chance of winning as he doesn't have the sprint of those others. But he did a good job of getting Sky's name in the results when plan A and B went up in smoke.
Sagan was the one who got it wrong. He put in some pointless digs and started his sprint too early.
Great race!

Don't get me wrong. I think he did well to get himself into that position. the gap leading up to the Poggio was well conceived. But the fact that Stannard continued to push thing off and on before, during and after the descent of the Poggio was purely naive once it was clear that Cancellara and Sagan had caught them. He repeatedly exhausted himself to no end whatsoever. If you watch Chavanel, he at least knew they were done. Stannards best hope was to sit in and try to get clear of the trailing bunch if the others were to start looking over their shoulders too much. He was never going to do that with the amount he sat on the front. He sprinted at both 2.5kms and 1km to go, which was never the right time looking at his state of exhaustion compared to the others..

I know Stannard tried to get distance, but was he ever going to time trial away from the others? No, not in a million years. So exhausting himself upto the sprint was pointless. That's why he finished last in that bunch (if he wasn't naive how did he end up there?). He was also ploughing a stupidly high gear which gave him no acceleration, and worked too hard to be able to sprint. If you check his cadence it was maybe 10-15 revs below his rivals too. Plucky and heroic, maybe, tactical and smart it wasn't.

Fabulous finish to the race.

I disagree about Stannard being tactically naive. Even sat on a sprinters coattails he wouldn't have had the kick to get round them, so his only option was to try to accelerate away from them before the line was in sight. He gave it a fine shot, and when Cancellara made it clear that he wasn't going to do the chasing-down there was a momentary glimmer of hope.

Top work by Ciolek though, Sagan's face of thunder when he realised he'd been beaten was an absolute picture.

Nice to see a little guy, on a little team, stick it to the favourites and the big teams.

Cancellara is looking good for the cobbled classics. Boonen less so, unfortunately, but understandably given his recent elbow infection. It would be something to see those two both on top form in the same year.

Stannard was fantastic, sure he didn't win the race but he certainly won a lot of respect.

I was following the race on Twitter this morning and some of the pictures of the conditions made it look horrendous.

It seemed more of an expedition than a race at that stage.

My 'hard man' award would go to Heinrich Haussler of IAM Racing who apparently was racing without gloves and bad luck award would go to Greg Henderson who allegedly had his bike nicked ten minutes before the start of the race.

Here's to tactical naivety!

Yeah, I agree that Stannard was tactically naive. He worked too hard and could've ridden in on the others. He hanging from all the work and was never going to get the punch he needed.

Shame on Tom Boonen. I think he have himself the excuse he needed. It was just one of those days.

I think Stannard was never going to win today, however unfortunate that may be. Even if he had been away with only Chavanel, he would not have won in a sprint finish. He's an amazing rider, but his strength is his diesel like ability to keep churning out the power, rather than his killer sprint, which is what one needs to win MSR...

exhilarating race - it just shows the quality of pro racers today, most of which usually only end up working for their team leaders.

Hats off to all who finished the race, rather than complaining about race organization.

It was interesting to see how Cancellara changed tactics from last year, and how Sagan still needs to curb some of his youthful exuberance. No doubt Sagan will win this monument in the future.

Shame Sky didn't ride for Stannard today! What a stellar performance.

ian stannard what a monster

gilberts attack and then stannard driving the break made that race, and he still nearly did it at the end.