MILAN SAN REMO

The year’s hardest-to-call race

20 March 2021 Start: Milan Finish: San Remo Length: TBC 2020 winner: Wout van Aert (Team Jumbo-Visma); No women’s race; Website: milanosanremo.it

The men’s season’s first Monument – its longest one-day race – was stretched out still further in 2020 up to 305km because of both Covid and weather. Like all the Spring Classics, last year’s race was bumped back to later in the year and MSR’s new 8 August date fell slap-bang in the middle of the summer tourist season. This led a dozen mayors in the Italian Riviera, along which the race runs, to refuse to close their roads for the race, which meant it was rerouted, and then again on top of that, after heavy storms flooded part of the route.

At over seven hours, Milan-San Remo - 'La Primavera' - is the most time any rider spends in the saddle all season, but many would tell you it’s far from the toughest. What it does have is a splendid final hour, so if you only had one hour to watch bike racing this spring, Milan-San Remo’s finale might well be it. One of its unique aspects is how many different types of rider believe they can win. In the past five years the race has been won by a bona fide sprinter (Arnaud Démare, 2016), a Tour de France King of the Mountains winner (Julian Alaphilippe, 2019) and a rider who’s won all three Grand Tours (Vincenzo Nibali, 2018). The race often comes down to the Poggio climb, the summit of which is just 5.4km from the finish. The Poggio’s characteristics, 4km at 3.7 per cent, make it the perfect climb for the situation, giving hope to burly fast men and agile climbers alike. From the summit comes one of the most technical descents on the calendar, one that can be as decisive as the climb. As ever in pro cycling, however, how the story plays out is dictated as much by the riders themselves…

What makes the first Monument great is that many top riders, no matter their specialism, think they’ve got a shot at victory