Milan: UAE Team Emirates’ Ben Swift finished 17th in the season’s first ‘Spring Classic’, the iconic Milan — San Remo, on Saturday, narrowly missing out on his goal of a top-10 finish.
The 29-year-old British sprinter who finished the same race in second and third places in 2016 and 2014 respectively, had a strong start but after he came into contact with another rider during the climb of the Poggio he was unable to break away from the chaser pack of 50 riders and finished five seconds behind eventual winner Michal Kwiatkowski.
The longest professional one-day race in modern cycling, also known as La Classica di Primavera (“The Spring Classic”) or “La Classicissima”, was won by Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) in a tight, three-man sprint with Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors).
“The first part of the Poggio was the key moment,” said Swift. “Until then my race had been perfect, especially thanks to the support from my team mates — at the approach to the Poggio we were at the front. Unfortunately, on the hill I got tangled up with another rider and was overtaken. Together with Marco Marcato and Diego Ulissi, we managed to come back to the head of the group just in time to see Sagan attack. By that point I had spent my energy and I couldn’t follow the World Champion.”
Mario Scirea, UAE Team Emirates Sporting Director, said: “We had two goals: to join the breakaway and to reach the top ten. Thanks to Federico Zurlo, we achieved the first target, unfortunately we could not hit the second one, despite the very good work by the team.”
Riding alongside Swift was a seven man strong UAE Team Emirates team: Vegard Stake Laengen, Marco Marcato, Sacha Modolo, Matej Mohoric, Manuele Mori, Diego Ulissi and Federico Zurlo.
It is a busy week for UAE Team Emirates, who will race next at Monday’s Volta a Catalunya, Wednesday’s Dwars Door Vlaanderen, and on March 24 at the E3 Harelbeke. All three are UCI World Tour races, the highest level of race on the calendar.
