Peron and Lozano show the world how it’s done in Milan-Sanremo breakaway

Sometimes you just have to leave it to the old heads to take the reigns and for Team Novo Nordisk at Milano-Sanremo it was veterans Andrea Peron and David Lozano who made the breakaway and inspired the world once again.

The 117th edition rolled out of Pavia at 10am with the sun shining and crowds lining the street and Team Novo Nordisk at the front of the peloton with only one goal in mind – the breakaway.

A first attempt as the neutral flag dropped was thwarted with some confusion on the course and then boom, Lozano and Peron were ready and the second attempt was the one that stuck.
At his seventh appearance in the race Lozano finally made the breakaway…

“Wow! Finally made it up the road at Milano-Sanremo,” began Lozano. “I had to take Andrea with me to make sure I wasn’t the oldest guy in the group! We were ready at the front and as soon as Filippo, Sam and Umberto’s group took a wrong turn we knew we had to take our chance.”

Peron and Lozano at 37 years old are the stalwarts of the team, with Team Novo Nordisk since day one, both winners and both widely respected athletes. Getting up the road together in one of cycling’s five monuments feels like a crowning moment for the pair.

“We didn’t stop for 230km,” said Peron. “The difference breakaway in Milan-Sanremo ten years ago and today is huge. The level is so high now that you’re pushing massive watts just to stay out front. The peloton may have let us go, but they refused to let us go very far and the gap stayed at three minutes until we hit the coast.”

“That’s five breakaways in six appearances for me now at Sanremo and that’s special for any rider, let alone an Italian rider with type 1 diabetes. They’ve been telling us for years that it’s not possible, but we keep coming back and showing everyone that it really is possible.

“To come back to Sanremo for what’s probably my last time and be out front once again with my wife and children waiting at the finish is incredible. I grew up watching this race and I love it. Every meter of it.”

Close to 300km later and the sun was setting on another golden edition of ‘La Classicissima’ the peloton was rolling over the line on Via Roma in broken groups of exhausted riders, smiling to have made it. Content in the peace of energy well spent, looking forward to the well earned slices of Pizza.

“It feels good,” concluded Lozano, reflective and showered on the bus,“people don’t really know how it feels to be in a race like this. There’s pressure all around and tension in the bunch. You feel the tension of the guys who are fighting to win and also the tension of guys like us, who are fighting just to be here, fighting for the chance to get in the breakaway and show our jersey and share our story, our message. And we made it. We did it.”