Eisel: Maxim Van Gils is capable of going over the Poggio with the best 🇮🇹
Exclusive interview with the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe sports director ahead of Milan-San Remo
Hi Subscribers,
One of the best one-day races on the calendar is tomorrow, and as part of the build-up to Milan-San Remo, I spoke to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s sports director, Bernie Eisel, about his team’s chances and the possibility of a long-range attack on the Cipressa.
Eisel is a 15-time Milan-San Remo veteran and was part of two winning teams during his long and respected career. He knows his stuff!
Later today, we’ll have one more interview with a rider, and then I’ll have race conclusions on Saturday evening. We might have one more story in the mix tomorrow morning, but I don’t want to jinx it by confirming what it is. 🤞
Just a reminder that I’m off to Belgium next week for a block of cobbles racing. You can follow me on Instagram throughout the trip, and I’ll share all my audio interviews and sound files in the Founding Member WhatsApp group. The Eisel audio is already on there.
Have a great Friday,
Daniel 🫶
Although Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe heads into Milan-San Remo without a bonafide race favourite, the German squad still boasts one of the most robust rosters in the race.
Maxim Van Gils will lead the line, while Laurence Pithie, Roger Adrià, Danny van Poppel and Gianni Moscon are all slated for the first Monument of the 2025 season.
On paper, Van Gils is the team’s best card. He was inside the top ten last year, finished fourth in Liege, and has shown flashes of brilliance since his well-documented move from Lotto over the winter. However, the Belgian’s form has hit a few bumps this year.
He crashed out of Besseges in February and was ruled out of Strade Bianche due to a fever. Pithie hasn’t raced in Europe this year, while Adrià has looked strong in recent races but has never raced Milan-San Remo.
“You’ve pretty much summed it up well for me,” said sports director Bernie Eisel when we spoke to him on the phone this morning from just outside Milan.
“We know the strength of the boys in general, but at the same time, as you said, Laurence was at altitude, and he came from New Zealand. Replicating the training in racing, especially for San Remo, is tricky, especially with the weather for tomorrow, but we will go in confident. We know what Maxim has shown already a few times this year. For me, he’s definitely capable of going over the Poggio with the best ones. Then it comes down to a bit of luck and legs in the sprints. Sickness and crashes put him off the rails a bit, and Roger is another name to mention, so we have pretty much three cards to play, which is a good thing with the distance and the weather because, in the last 60 to 80km, that’s when you find out who is really up for it. That’s a luxury for us, to see who we go for. We go into the race pretty confident and looking for a good result; that’s our goal,” the Austrian added.