Yevgeniy Gidich and Artyom Zakharov spend 270 km in a breakaway at Milano-Sanremo
Two Kazakh riders Yevgeniy Gidich and Artyom Zakharov showed really good form today at the first Monument of the year Milano-Sanremo, spending around 270 kilometers in the breakaway.
Zakharov was the first rider who attacked immediately at KM 0, creating a group of four riders, while shortly it was Yevgeniy Gidich who joined them after a strong counterattack, bringing with him three more riders. The group of Zakharov and Gidich quickly opened a good gap, increasing their advantage to seven minutes with some 150 km to go.
The riders in the breakaway worked well together and with just 50 km to go the group of Gidich and Zakharov still was keeping around four minutes of advantage.
On one of the last climbs before famous Cipressa hill the breakaway group has split in two parts with Yevgeniy Gidich still riding in front. At the end of the day the break of Gidich ended with some 20 km to go on the descent from Cipressa, while the last two riders from the leading group have been caught back at the beginning of Poggio climb with 9 km to go.
“Well, I felt quite good today and I am really happy with the way I spent this day. It was our plan to go in the break and I am happy I could join it, spending a tough and long but at the same time very nice day in front of the race. Milano-Sanremo was the first cycling race I watched on TV when I just started practicing cycling. On that time I even could not imagine how it is possible to ride 300 kilometers in one day… Today, I spent 270 km in a breakaway and I am happy about that”, – said Yevgeniy Gidich.
“Before the start together with Yevgeniy we decided that it would be good to try to join the daily breakaway and shortly after the race started, we both were able to attack in a right moment. Well, it was quite a long day and in the end I just gave my all trying to stay in front as long as possible. I had to give up somewhere with 30 km to go, but I think it was a nice race for me, for Yevgeniy and our Astana Qazaqstan Team”, – added Artyom Zakharov.
An attack on the descent from Poggio brought a solo victory to the Slovenian rider Matej Mohoric, while Astana’s best performer became Fabio Felline, who finished in one of the chasing groups behind the winner.
Photo credit: @Gettysport