Milano-San Remo : Constance in the breakaway

The Mayenne Monbana My Pie team took part in the women’s edition of Milan–San Remo for the first time this Saturday. The Italian race proved to be a great opportunity for Constance Valentin, who spent more than 70 kilometres in the breakaway. Her teammates managed to stay with the favourites’ group until the final kilometres.

La Primavera, the nickname of Milan–San Remo, is an iconic Italian classic on the cycling calendar. At the start of the women’s race in Genoa on Saturday, the instructions were clear: show the jersey by getting into the breakaway of the day. Mission accomplished after 50 kilometres of attacks, thanks to Constance Valentin. The rider from Nice, accompanied by eight others, built a lead of nearly four minutes.

It was on the final climbs, the well-known Cipressa and Poggio, that the race really came to life. Once the breakaway was caught, a reduced peloton contested the win in the final kilometres. Marine Allione and Karolina Perekitko were able to follow the best riders up to the final climb, before splits occurred on the descent. Overall, the outcome remains positive for the French ProTeam on the eve of the Giro dell’Appennino.

Constance Valentin, breakaway rider and 105th : “I’m really happy to have made it into the breakaway. It was the team’s goal to have someone up the road. I had that ambition ever since I knew I would take part. Achieving it is really rewarding. It took some time before the move went — I tried several times and it finally happened after 30 kilometres. Once in the breakaway, it was fairly steady until the Capi. Then it was full gas to stay away as long as possible and help the team before the Cipressa/Poggio sequence.”

Jean-Christophe Barbotin, manager of Mayenne Monbana My Pie : “The objective was to get into the breakaway. There were quite a few attempts early on, then the right group finally went clear with Constance. The gap went up to 3’50’’, which allowed them to tackle the first climbs at the front. Unfortunately, Francesca crashed at the start of the Capo Mele. Kiara did a huge job positioning the riders, especially helping Marine a lot. On the Cipressa, we still had half the team in the peloton of around 60 riders — Marine, Karo and Alice — which was very good. Marine and Karo stayed with the front group up to the Poggio, which they climbed with the best. Unfortunately, a split happened on the descent and they both finished 22 seconds down. We know what we still need to improve, but overall we can say it was a good race.”

Results :

41 - Marine Allione

46 – Karolina Perekitko

63 – Alice Coutinho

105 – Constance Valentin

120 – Kiara Lylyk

131 – Francesca Hall

Photo credit : Gaëtan Flamme