Milano-Torino: Mark Cavendish storms to sprint win
British rider takes the win on the line in Italy with Bouhanni in second and Kristoff taking third.
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Mark Cavendish (Quick-Step AlphaVinyl) took a well-deserved win in Milano-Torino on Wednesday.
The British sprinter was perfectly brought to the line by his teammates and edged out Nacer Bouhanni (Arkea Samsic) and Alexander Kristoff (Intermarché – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux) to take the win.
Peter Sagan (TotalEnergies) finished fifth.
Bouhanni hit the front as the lead group rounded the final corner but the Frenchman appeared to hesitate and was unwilling to take it on from so far out. Cavendish still had teammates at that point and Michael Mørkøv drove through the middle of the road with Cavendish on his wheel.
Bouhanni reacted and jumped on the Quick-Step train but when Cavendish launched his sprint he had more than a bike’s length on his rivals. Kristoff and Bouhanni both closed in on Cavendish towards the line but the British rider ran out a comfortable winner to take his third victory of the season.
“I’m really happy. I’m back with Michael Mørkøv again, and it was just dialed, which it has to be for a one-day race because there’s only one opportunity. They send most of the sprint team with Fabio Jakobsen most of the year, so there’s a solid base of a sprint team for me here, and you’ve seen it’s just incredible,” Cavendish said at the finish.
“It’s the first time I raced Milano-Torino and I’m super happy. I like winning races. I’ve already won Milan-San Remo and now I can say that I’ve won Milano-Torino as well. Normally this is just a hilly race, so to see my name next to riders who have won this race, that’s quite special.”
Age is just a number!
First British rider to win #MilanoTorino!
Photo: @GettySport pic.twitter.com/6A5mk5I2iE
— Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team (@qst_alphavinyl) March 16, 2022
Martin Marcellusi (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè), Juan Diego Alba (Drone Hopper – Androni Giocattoli), and Daniel Viegas (EOLO-Kometa) had formed the day’s early break. They were caught with just under 20km to go with Team DSM, Movistar, and TotalEnergies setting the pace.
James Shaw and Ben Healy – both EF Education EasyPost riders – created a gap to the bunch soon after with the Irish rider maintaining a solo advantage of around 15 seconds with 13.km to go. Healy still held a 17-second lead with 8.3km to go with Mark Cavendish’s Quick-Step AlphaVinyl squad forced to put in a furious chase. The catch was eventually made with 4.4km to go.
At that point, Quick-Step looked to be running out of riders but they came back in the closing stages to help seal Cavendish’s first win on European soil this year.