March 18, 2006 – Milan San Remo is a day of anticipation. We race 300K, the spectators watch us for close to seven hours, and then the race is decided in the final 30K. Amazingly, the race nearly always comes down to a group sprint and this year it wasn’t much different.

San Remo is also a tactical race as positioning is as important as being on good form. If a rider is too far back going into a climb there is a good chance he won’t be there in the final, as the selection is made from behind, where riders sit up, open gaps, and make it nearly impossible for anybody to close them as the speed is incredibly high.

Today’s race was my second attempt – and I am learning. I felt great in the last hour, over the Cipressa and Poggio, but didn’t really know the climbs that well and was too far back over the top. I now know that the position in which a rider comes over the Poggio is essentially where he finishes as the speed and technical nature of the descent make it impossible to move up before the line.

Today was fast from the start as the usual early break went clear. But it was a fairly large break which forced the peloton to ride at a quick tempo so that the time gap remained manageable for the teams riding on the front. The race has a format: the early break goes, a couple of teams swap off on the front, with the speed increasing as we near the coast and then the small short climbs in the final 50K. Riders attack on the Cipressa with the hope that they will make it to the Poggio, but usually their fate is sealed and they are caught by the peloton and the race is won in a sprint.

We didn’t really have a clear leader today as George Hincapie decided to pass on this race and recover from Tirreno-Adriatico and a cold. So, our goal going into the race was to have three guys in the front group so that we could help maintain our standing in the ProTour team classification.

At the end of the day I was left frustrated by the fact that I waited too long and made a tactical mistake but happy with the fact that my legs were good after six hours of racing.