The short period of time leading up to the novel Milano-Sanremo meant that there were few in form, but Arnaud Demare's midweek Milano-Torino victory underscored his credentials as a favorite to win on the Via Roma.

The Frenchman, of course, already has the pedigree to match his current condition at La Classissima: he won in 2016, and two years later he was on the podium, each time giving the impression that his usual speed had hardly been slowed by the distance of the race.

Still, De Mare was heartened by the fact that the Groupama-FDJ team set up a group sprint in Stupinigi, fending off Caleb Yuan, Wout van Aert, and Peter Sagan in Milan-Torino.

"I have felt this strong in the past Milan-San Remo, but never this supported," DeMare told reporters from the courtyard of his hotel in Paderno Dugnano, Italy, on Friday afternoon, both on the spot and via zoom.

"I rely on my teammates more than usual. They are all at the top level. We spent three weeks together at the training camp in Le Grand Bornand, and already there we saw that everyone came back from lockdown in good shape. And we saw it again at the Vuelta a Burgos, even though we had some bad luck in the last sprint."

De Mare had two second-place finishes at the Vuelta a Burgos just a week ago and was particularly frustrated on the final day when a crash under the Flamme Rouge effectively brought him to a halt. The five days in Spain were also useful time to prepare for the higher temperatures expected in Milan-San Remo this weekend.

"We were lucky to enjoy the heat for five days in Burgos, and racing in temperatures as high as 40°C, we would have been able to acclimatize," said De Mare.

"The racers who competed in Strade Bianche were also in that heat. Four hours in that heat is already tough, but over seven hours you really have to manage it well."

Those seven hours were condensed into a breathless last 30 minutes or so around Cipressa and Poggio, where the riders had to make split-second decisions. Despite the change in route, De Mare will face a familiar conundrum on the Ligurian coast.

"You have to be wary of all the riders, but I'm more worried about Panthur than the sprinters," DeMare said. 'There are a couple of riders who have the potential to blow up the race, and we have to decide whether to go with them or wait for them. Depending on the composition of the peloton, you have to make a decision at that moment.

"If everything explodes in the poggio, the race is lost. But it's a decision that has to be made at that moment, and you can't plan too far in advance."

The French rider named Julien Alaphilippe, Philippe Gilbert, and Vincenzo Nibali as danger men for Poggio, but like many riders, he also named Strade Bianche winner Wout Van Art as the Milan~. Sanremo and sees him as a strong contender.

"He [Van Aert] can win alone and he can sprint.

The lay of the land has changed dramatically since Milan~Sanremo was postponed to March. In addition to the summer heat, athletes competing in La Classissima will have to deal with a reduced team list and a redesigned route.

De Mare's teammate Jacopo Guarnieri regretted that the mayor of the Ligurian coast refused to allow passage from Milan to San Remo, forcing RCS Sport to change the route to pass through the Langhe before passing through the Riviera before Cipressa

"These are the same routes that the RCS Sport team took.

"It is unfortunate that these municipalities did not see cycling as a positive for the region and saw us as a problem," Guarnieri said. 'I'm very disappointed with the decision at the political level,' he said. On paper, it will be a tougher course, but I don't know if it will be a harder race."

De Mare does not expect Turchino's absence to change the lineup of contenders, but noted that the battle for position in the Colle di Nava could become rather intense. From a strategic point of view," he said, "it's all about positioning there. But it's after 250 km, so if you have the legs, you should be able to position yourself more easily."

Within minutes of Demare's victory in Wednesday's Milan-Torino, Stupinisi received news of a horrific crash in the first stage of the Tour de Pollogne in which Fabio Jacobsen was seriously injured. The French rider reviewed footage of the sprint and discovered problems with both Dylan Groenewegen's strategy and the layout of the barriers on the Katowice finish straight.

"Whether it's the riders or the barriers, there are a lot of issues to look at," said Demare, comparing the crash to the day Mark Cavendish won the 2017 Tour de France in Vittel.

"When Cavendish crashed, the barriers didn't move and he went through them back onto the road. There were too many deadly obstacles.

"We have to be vigilant not only about our approach to the sprint, but also about the infrastructure surrounding the sprint.

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