March 23, 2008 - A great win for Fabien Cancellara in Milan-San Remo, but all in all a very strange race for anyone watching and waiting for something spectacular to happen on the famous hills of the Cipressa and Poggio. Instead, it all happened in the last two-kilometres, just as the race was looking likely to end in a big sprint after attacks by Rebellin and Gasparotto had been nullified. This year's race had a new climb in it, La Manie, and most people now see this as being the reason this year's great Classic was so different. Teams like Quick-Step, CSC and Rabobank did not know whether to go hard and spoil their own sprinters' chances on the steep climb, or damp down any attacks from teams with no sprinters, in the hope the race would quickly re-form on the seaside run towards the Cipressa. What seemed to happen was a bit of each, with some sprinters like Boonen staying with the front group, but others like Petacchi and Hushovd needing a lot of help to chase back on. Probably, the climb did Boonen's legs in, for he was never seen at the front again, not even in the final flat kilometres. I think La Manie has made Milan-San Remo a different proposition altogether - as has the extra kilometre to the finish after the Poggio.

This was one of the slowest 'Primavera's in years, and not solely because of the stiff headwind that the cyclists faced into on their way down to the Mediterranean from Milan, and then along the Riviera to San Remo. No one team seemed interested in taking the initiative, partly because they were waiting to see how La Manie affected the race. Or perhaps most teams knew how strong Cancellara was, after his win in Tirreno-Adriatico? It is always fascinating to view ones' images a day after the race, in that hour or so after you've drunk three cups of coffee and the fogginess from last night's wine and food has been dispelled from your body. In my studies on Sunday morning, I noticed time after time how Cancellara was always in the background, on all the major ascents, sitting at the front of the peloton as other riders made their attempts to get away. Cancellara is there on the Cipressa as Bettini made one of his attacks. He is there again on the Poggio, watching from a safe distance as Bertolini made one attack. More significantly, he is seen at the back of the group created by Gasparotto's late attack on the Poggio. The Swiss guy watched and waited and then took his chance at the perfect moment.

There's always a fascination as to whether Tirreno or Paris-Nice produces the Milan-San Remo winner, and in Cancellara's case, we now know just how well prepared he was. Tirreno had a lot more 'stars' in its peloton, but it was dominated totally by the weekend time trial over 24-kilometres, meaning either the other stages weren't hard enough or that Cancellara is becoming a climber! Paris-Nice was dominated by the bad weather in the first few days, and by the series of crashes that ruined the chances of Cadel Evans and Stefan Schumacher in particular. Evans did win the toughest stage of the race, on the Mont Ventoux, and contributed an awful lot more to the race, perhaps in realisation the Tour de France is within his grasp this summer and that he'd better start acting the part of a Tour winner. Paris-Nice also introduced Robert Gesink as a great white hope of cycling, at least from a Dutch point of view. The tall youngster has got to learn to time trial and descend better, but aside from these issues, the only other obvious 'fault' is a lack of experience, but that won't last much longer…

I'm in Spain now, one day after Italy and a week before the Criterium International in France that is organised by the Tour de France. With Astana definitely excluded from the Tour, they have sent their very best climbing team to the Castilla y Leon stage-race in an attempt to take some glory for themselves and let the French organisers see the mistake they are making. We've got Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner in the team that will surely dynamite this tough event, and stage-race riders don't come much better than those three! But they will have opposition coming from a wide variety of top teams now using this race as preparation for the Classics since the Semana Catalana disappeared a few years back. Top of the list must be Rabobank, with Denis Menchov and Thomas Dekker in their line-up. There's also Caisse d'Epargne and Euskatel, as well as Slipstream, a team very much guaranteed a slot in the Tour this July. Slipstream have had a very busy time since starting their season in the Tour of Qatar and then winning the team prize in the Tour of California, largely thanks to the strength and experience of Christian Vande Velde and David Millar. They are in need of a bit of a rest right now, but a bit more work is needed in this race and next weekend's two-day event in France before they can kick back for a while.

I'm excited by being in Spain for the first time this year, there's something about Spanish stage-races that set them apart from all the other countries - maybe it is because of the imbalance between the ProTour teams and the more modest Spanish teams who always, always, make themselves noticed here. I expect to see day-long escapes being chased down by the big boys, but for at least one of those escapes to stay away for the stage-win. Surely, a top rider will win the opening time trial on Monday afternoon? The mountains on Thursday will decide the race, but there is that much snow around in this part of Spain, that the result could be more unpredictable than normal. Leipheimer has only been in Europe for five days after a long winter in the warmer climate of California, I wonder how he'll cope with temperatures far colder than those he experienced in the Tour of California, and whether he'll be working for Contador or the other way around? All I know is that Italy was a much warmer place yesterday, but that the Castilla y Leon race will be a lot more exciting!

Graham Watson