Summer loving

Cycling’s longest Monument has a similarly beastly gran fondo

The genius move of the organisers of the Milan-San Remo Gran Fondo (6 June 2021, milano-sanremo.org ) was to not stage it in spring but in June, in the blistering heat of an Italian Riviera summer. All other mass participation rides associated with the Monuments take place alongside their corresponding races, but the thought of riding around 300km on the third weekend of March, when snow has been known to sabotage the pro race, appeals only to the most committed.

Rather than starting, like the pro race does, on the Piazza del Duomo by Milan Cathedral, the Gran Fondo begins in the suburbs 13km south of the city, in Pieve Emanuele. It then remains faithful to the route, with a fast, flat ride up until the Passo del Turchino, one of the flattest cols pro cycling gets involved with in the Alps, climbing just 373m over 25.5km. Nevertheless, it separates the delirious first half (expect to average 40kph over the first three hours in the peloton), with the rather mean-spirited second along the coast to San Remo, which takes you up climbs of increasing complexity, from short, anonymous ramps, to the sharp trio of capi climbs, and finally the longer Cipressa and Poggio climbs, a duo of haymakers to the midriff whose sole aim is to send you tumbling to the canvas. Should you make it to the finish, as Cycling Plus did in 2014, you may well have reached double-figure hours in the saddle and have quite the story to tell.