Slovenian wins Milan-San Remo cycling classic with lowerable seat post
Milan-San Remo was won on Saturday by Matej Mohoric, who used a telescopic seatpost. A so-called dropper post has never been used in professional road racing before, as far as is known.
In a thrilling race, 27-year-old Slovenian Matej Mohoric of Team Bahrain Victorious was able to keep up with his biggest rivals on the final climb to the Poggio. He then left them all behind in the downhill and celebrated one of his biggest victories in the spring classic Milan-San Remo.
Milan-San Remo is one of the five monuments of road cycling: five tough races that have all been held for over a century. With a length of 293 kilometers, Milan-San Remo is the longest one-day race on the World Tour calendar. The fact that an invention from mountain bike racing is proving to be a decisive factor here says a lot about how mature the technology has become in the meantime.
In his winning interview, Mohoric explained his plan to Eurosport:
"I've been thinking about this race all winter. The team came up with the idea of using a lowerable seatpost because this race suits me very well and it has a downhill at the end. I knew that if I trained properly over the winter and was in good shape, I had a chance to win here. The team set up the bike for me with the dropper post because we had this plan for a long, long time. I didn't think it would make a big difference on the downhills at first, but when I tried it for the first time in training, I was amazed at how much more secure it was. It gives you a lot more control over the bike and when you're going full throttle, you can naturally go a little faster and it's easier to avoid mistakes or correct them when they happen."
The benefits of a lowerable seatpost may seem minimal at first glance. However, using a lever on the handlebars, the saddle height can be individually adjusted on the fly without tools. This gives the athlete the best possible position for power transfer on the uphill and the greatest freedom of movement on the downhill.
And what does the UCI say?
Following Matej Mohoric's first World Cup win at Milan-San Remo, the UCI, world cycling's governing body, has confirmed that it will not ban dropper posts for road cycling races. In a statement, the UCI confirmed that retractable seatposts will be allowed as long as they comply with regulations:
In 2014, the UCI Equipment Commission approved the use of retractable seat posts in road cycling races. Their use is subject to Article 1.3.013 of the UCI regulations for a minimum clearance of 5 cm, i.e. when the lowerable seatpost is set up to its highest or lowest setting. The setting must fully comply with Article 1.3.013.
Bilder: Tim de Waele/Getty Images
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