10 Conclusions from Milan-San Remo

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Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha) wins Milan-San Remo(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

1. Kristoff is no surprise

Kristoff won the Norwegian national championship in 2007, when he was just 19, and again in 2011 when he was 23. He had two consistent but largely unnoticed seasons with BMC in 2010 and 2011 but always landed a clutch of top ten results. He moved to Katusha in 2012 and finished third in the London Olympic road race, winning the sprint for bronze ahead of Taylor Phinney, Sergey Lagutin and Stuart O'Grady.

And yet the old cliché says that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. For the past four years, the Swiss rider has been aggressive in his bid to repeat his 2008 Classicissima triumph but has always fallen short. When he attacked on the Poggio in 2012, for instance, Nibali sat on his wheel into San Remo, citing team orders, while Simon Gerrans slipped by and took the win.

After dropping back to help Kristoff over the Poggio, Paolini's huge turn on the front coming underneath the red kite had the twin effect of putting his sprinter in the box seat and stringing out the group, leaving the likes of Cavendish and Sagan with too much ground to make up in the finishing straight. It's useful having a teammate in the finale at Milan-San Remo, but it's even better when he knows exactly what he's doing.

At the start of the season Ben Swift sat down with Cyclingnews and made the case for missing this year's spring Classics. A combination of a recovering shoulder injury and a lack of results in previous spring campaigns meant that the Yorkshire rider would change course and target stages in week-long stage races. It made sense. Some of Swift's best results had come in races like Pologne, California and Romandie; where a combination of climbing, race nous and sprinting delivered notable success.

Milan-San Remo shouldn't change Swift's new outlook and aims - it's just one result - but merely enhances them. Since joining Team Sky it has been difficult at times to pigeon-hole his best role but Milan-San Remo demonstrated that Team Sky genuinely have a talented rider on their hands. There aren't many 26 year olds who can juggle winning world titles on the track and the demands of road racing but the way in which he handled the demands of 300km of racing and his sprint for third will not only give him some much needed confidence after a difficult 2013 but also enhance his credentials and the support from his team in future races.

It was somewhat puzzling when L'Equipe handed Sagan, and Sagan alone, a five star rating on the eve of Milan-San Remo. Granted, he is arguably the most all-round talent for nearly any one day race but this isn't the Sagan of twelve months ago, as a win in Oman and a gutsy sprint to Arezzo in Tirreno have somewhat papered over the cracks. If that's harsh then simply contrast this version of Sagan to the one from last year's edition of The Race of the Two Seas where the Slovak won the epic stage to Porto Sant'Elpidio after out-sprinting Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha). He was simply imperious and went on to have his most successful spring campaign to date.

Nibali put on a similar show at the Tour of Oman the day before he was dropped on Green Mountain and Chris Froome blasted to victory. At Paris-Nice his attacks were spectacular on the descents but then ended when the decisive climbs began. Nibali rode Milan-San Remo but will miss this week's Volta a Catalunya and a clash with Tour de France rivals Froome and Alberto Contador, with the easier Criterium International on his programme. He sees to be allergic to real confrontation.