Peter Sagan to lead Bora-Hansgrohe at Milan-San Remo
World champion aiming for first La Primavera victory
Peter Sagan will head up Bora-Hansgrohe's team at this weekend's Milan-San Remo as he looks to win the Italian Monument for the first time.
Backing the world champion will be key support riders Marcus Burghardt, Daniel Oss, and Maciej Bodnar, who are racing with him at Tirreno-Adriatico this week.
His brother Juraj Sagan is part of the seven-man team, having raced at Paris-Nice last week, with Andreas Schillinger and Cesare Benedetti completing the line-up.
Sagan has raced Milan-San Remo every year since making his debut in 2011 and has never been outside the top 20. He has twice been on the podium, finishing second in 2013 and 2017, but has not yet taken to the top step.
In 2013, he was widely seen as the favourite to win alongside Fabian Cancellara. However, with the pair watching each other, Gerald Ciolek was able to take advantage and claimed a surprise victory in torrid conditions.
Last year, Sagan escaped with Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) near the top of the Poggio. Despite never having a significant advantage, the trio eluded the peloton behind to duke it out for the win. It was a dramatic finale, with Kwiatkowski and Sagan almost colliding as they dived for the line. It took a photo finish to decide it with Kwiatkowski being named the race winner.
Sagan has looked in good form over the past week at Tirreno-Adriatico, finishing runner-up in the two sprint finishes as well as the trickier finale in Filottrano. His second place on stage 6 came despite almost coming down when Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) crashed in front of him, leaving him with a broken wheel and a frantic chase in the final kilometres.
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Gaviria was expected to be one of Sagan's rivals in San Remo at the weekend, but the Colombian will miss the race after breaking his hand in the crash.
Milan-San Remo will take place on Saturday, March 17 and Cyclingnews will have full live coverage of the race.