You never forget your first
Milano-Torino means cycling history, plain and simple, and it couldn’t be otherwise since we are dealing with the oldest race in the world, whose roots go back to the velocipedists of 1876. Today, 104 editions later, it is great to see that this race continues to write important pages of this sport. And just a few hours ago, along the 192 km separating Rho from Orbassano, a rather special one has been added, that of Tudor Pro Cycling Team and Arvid De Kleijn.
Useless to deny it, we were definitely expecting Dylan Groenewegen or Fernando Gaviria to cross the finish line first, or perhaps the reigning champion Mark Cavendish, or the young African talent Biniam Girmay, but instead, we had this 28-year-old Dutchman coming out of nowhere and delivering the sprint of a lifetime. While pretty much all the big sprinters were overwhelmed by the technical difficulties of the Orbassano finish, De Kleijn kept quiet, chose Casper Van Uden as a reference, overtook him, and then resisted Gaviria’s comeback without too many problems. Not the first win in his career (he had previosuly claimed a stage at the Tour of Turkey and a stage at the 4 Days of Dunkerque), but he had never won in such a prestigious context as the Milano-Torino.