Milan - San Remo

On this page: || Most wins | Best British performances | History | List of winners

Most Wins

• 7 wins: Eddy Merckx
• 6 wins: Costante Girardengo
• 4 wins: Gino Bartali, Erik Zabel
• 3 wins: Fausto Coppi, Roger De Vlaeminck

Best British Performances

• 1st: Tommy Simpson, 1964
• 3rd: Brian Robinson, 1957; Max Sciandri, 1993
• 4th: Max Sciandri, 1996
• 10th: Vin Denson, 1963

History

Unlike a classic such as the Tour of Flanders, which has always varied somewhat in its route from year to year, or Paris - Roubaix, which saw dramatic changes in the nineteen-sixties, "La Primavera" has changed but little over the eighty-odd years of its existence. Starting in Milan, it follows an easy course south for more than one hundred kilometres before tackling the first major obstacle, the Turchino Pass. If a break is going to go early, this is the place, fueled no doubt by memories of Fausto Coppi's 1946 epic which saw him attack here and win alone by fourteen minutes. From there to the finish the road follows the coast, undulating over a series of low Capi, or headlands.

Milan - San Remo: typical route profile.

Such was the race until the 1950's, but a series of processional bunch sprints (bought on by improved road surfaces and greatly improved fitness of the professional peloton) lowered interest in the race; to combat this, in 1960 a new climb was added just a few kilometres from the finish, the famous "Poggio di San Remo". Though just three kilometres long, and rising only about 160 metres, the effect of such a climb at the end of such a long, fast race was telling; for many years the Poggio became the favoured spot to attack after a mad dash up its lower slopes. Even so, big sprints once again became common, so that in 1982 a new climb, the Cipressa, was added about twenty kilometres from the finish. Ironically, that year saw Marc Gomez win, the sole remenant from an early suicide break on the Turchino, but the following year saw the Cipressa well blooded, with Giuseppe Sarroni's domestiques ripping the bunch apart on the Cipressa, leaving "Beppe" just to apply the final touches on the Poggio. Most recently, four bunch sprints have fallen to Erik Zabel, and there are mutterings abroad that another climb must be found, but for now the route is unchanged, a fast jaunt down the Riviera coast with those two stings in the tail to catch out the unwary.

Winners