A Belgian wins the Milan-San Remo 2021
The first major classic cycling event of the year, the Milan-San Remo, ended in a victory for a Belgian cyclist. Jasper Stuyven won the 112th edition of this legendary trial. He struck out on his own in the last few kilometres of the race and finally earned a narrow win ahead of the peloton of favourites
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On Saturday 20 March 2021, the participants tackled a distance of 299 km in a test considered a race for sprinters due to its mainly flat course. Since its creation on 14 April 1907, our compatriot Eddy Merckx, with his seven victories, holds the ultimate record in the race that the Italian press dubbed "La Primavera" or "La Classicissima"; it is one of the "five Monuments" with the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia.
Wout Van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel and Julian Alaphilippe were the main favourites for this Milan-San Remo 2021. But Jasper Stuyven confounded all the predictions, "I had to try something: it was all or nothing," stated the Leuven cyclist at the end of La Classicissima.
This was the most important win in the 28-year-old Belgian's career.