The longest Monument of the year, Milan-San Remo takes place on Saturday August 8, 2020. The spring Classic was originally scheduled for March 21, but was forced to move dates due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The UCI WorldTour race is the longest of the one day spring Classics, providing a showcase of some of the best riders in the world over almost 300km.
The race is now in its 111th year, and boasts a stat studded list of victors, the most recent being Julian Alaphilippe in 2019 who attacked to create a selection of 10 riders, before proving himself the strongest in the sprint.
A women’s version – Primavera Rosa – took place between 1999 to 2005, but was cancelled by the UCI in 2006. The first edition, in 1999 was won by Italian Sara Felloni and the last, in 2005, by German Trixi Worrack.
Milan-San Remo route
The route for the 2020 Milan-San Remo has been completely redesigned after coastal towns on the traditional course refusing to host the race, with only the final 36km following the iconic parcours.
The route has now been extended to 299km in length (from 293km) as riders still depart from Milan, but will miss the Passo del Turchino which traditionally falls at the 160km mark.
Profile for the 2020 Milan-San Remo (Picture: RCS Sport)
Instead the 2020 edition will follow an inland route through Allessandria and Nizza Monferrato before hitting the coast at Imperia.
The peloton will cover two notable climbs in the middle section – Niella Belbo at 161km and Colle di Navia at 229km, neither of which are categorised.
Then it all gets spicy as the peloton reaches two notable climbs, the Cipressa and Poggio di Sanremo.
The Cipressa is just over 5.6km long with a gradient of 4.1 per cent, and followed by a technical descent down to the SS 1 Aurelia road.
Then there’s the climb of the Poggio di Sanremo – which is 3.7 kilometres long, with an average gradient of less than 4 per cent and maximum of 8 per cent.
It might be shallow, but it starts 9km before the finish, and it’s a narrow road with four hairpins in the first 2km.
The descent is highly technical again. Once the downhill slope has been negotiated, there’s 2km of long, straight urban roads before a left hand bend at a roundabout 850m from the finish straight.
Milan-San Remo route history
Despite being known as the ‘Sprinters’ Classic’, the Italian race would not be as prestigious as it is were it a straightforward procession to a bunch sprint, and instead the race is characterised by its tortuous length, thrilling conclusion and delicate balancing act between sprinters and attackers.
The introduction of La Manie in 2008 gave the advantage to attacking puncheurs, as a difficult, significantly-positioned climb to gain an advantage over those hoping for a bunch sprint. It contributed to a handful of more selective editions – Fabian Cancellara won from a solo break in 2008 and Simon Gerrans from a group of three in 2010, and in both 2011 and 2013 a group of seven contested the finish, won by Matt Goss and Gerald Ciolek respectively.
When La Manie was dropped in 2014, the organiser’s initial intention had been to make the route even harder by replacing it with the Pompeiana in a slot far closer to the finish. But that climb was deemed unsafe due to the possibility of landslides, so that since 2014 the race has featured neither climb.
Michal Kwiatkowski edges out Peter Sagan at Milan-San Remo. Photo: Yuzuru Sunada
Now the dynamic of the route has shifted comprehensively back to the sprinters.
After Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) won the sprint from a sizeable peloton in 2014, the finish was moved back to its traditional finishing straight of Via Roma, and another sprinter was triumphant in the form of John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) in 2015 and Arnaud Démare (FDJ) in 2016.
For the bold and the brave the Cipressa provides a potential launchpad for an attack at just over 20km from the finish, but for the more realistic, it’s the Poggio.
On the back of around 280km of racing the riders are exhausted upon reaching it, and, peaking at 5.5km from the finish, any rider who goes over the top first with a gap has a chance of zooming down the descent and holding off the sprinters for victory on the Via Roma.
Milan-San Remo 2020 start list – Confirmed
Astana Pro Team
LUTSENKO Alexey
ARANBURU Alex
MARTINELLI Davide
BOARO Manuele
IZAGIRRE Gorka
FRAILE Omar
AG2R La Mondiale
NAESEN Oliver
NAESEN Lawrence
VENDRAME Andrea
DUVAL Julien
VANDENBERGH Stijn
WARBASSE Larry
Bahrain-McLaren
COLBRELLI Sonny
TEUNS Dylan
CARUSO Damiano
GARCÍA CORTINA Iván
HALLER Marco
MOHORIČ Matej
Bora-Hansgrohe
SAGAN Peter
OSS Daniel
BENEDETTI Cesare
BURGHARDT Marcus
GATTO Oscar
GROßSCHARTNER Felix
CCC Team
VAN AVERMAET Greg
TRENTIN Matteo
MASNADA Fausto
DE MARCHI Alessandro
KOCH Jonas
SCHÄR Michael
Cofidis
VIVIANI Elia
LAPORTE Christophe
CONSONNI Simone
SABATINI Fabio
VANBILSEN Kenneth
LEMOINE Cyril
Deceuninck – Quick-Step
ALAPHILIPPE Julian
DECLERCQ Tim
ŠTYBAR Zdeněk
BENNETT Sam
MØRKØV Michael
JUNGELS Bob
EF Pro Cycling
BETTIOL Alberto
WOODS Michael
CORT Magnus
CRADDOCK Lawson
DOCKER Mitchell
CLARKE Simon
Groupama-FDJ
DÉMARE Arnaud
SINKELDAM Ramon
KÜNG Stefan
SCOTSON Miles
KONOVALOVAS Ignatas
GUARNIERI Jacopo
Israel Start-Up Nation
CIMOLAI Davide
ZABEL Rick
BOIVIN Guillaume
DOWSETT Alex
SUTHERLAND Rory
HOLLENSTEIN Reto
Jumbo-Visma
VAN AERT Wout
JANSEN Amund Grøndahl
ROOSEN Timo
TOLHOEK Antwan
MARTENS Paul
LINDEMAN Bert-Jan
Lotto-Soudal
GILBERT Philippe
EWAN Caleb
FRISON Frederik
VAN DER SANDE Tosh
MAES Nikolas
DE BUYST Jasper
Mitchelton-Scott
KONYCHEV Alexander
ALBASINI Michael
STANNARD Robert
EDMONDSON Alex
MEYER Cameron
SMITH Dion
Movistar
CULLAIGH Gabriel
CARRETERO Héctor
HOLLMANN Juri
SEPÚLVEDA Eduardo
CATALDO Dario
VILLELLA Davide
NTT Pro Cycling
BOASSON HAGEN Edvald
VALGREN Michael
KREUZIGER Roman
GOGL Michael
NIZZOLO Giacomo
WALSCHEID Max
Sunweb
MATTHEWS Michael
BERNOOT Tiesj
BOL Cees
KRAGH ANDERSEN Søren
ARDNT Nikias
SÜTTERLIN Jasha
Team Ineos
KWIATKOWSKI Michał
SWIFT Ben
GANNA Filippo
VAN BAARLE Dylan
PUCCIO Salvatore
MOSCON Gianni
Trek-Segafredo
NIBALI Vincenzo
CICCONE Giulio
MOSCA Jacopo
BRAMBILLA Gianluca
CONCI Nicola
DE KORT Koen
UAE-Team Emirates
KRISTOFF Alexander
GAVIRIA Fernando
FORMOLO Davide
POGAČAR Tadej
RICHEZE Maximiliano
TROIA Oliviero
Circus-Wanty Gobert
VAN POPPEL Danny
PASQUALON ANdrea
MEURISSE Xandro
VLIEGEN Loïc
DE GENDT Aimé
BAKELANTS Jan
Total Direct Energie
BONIFAZIO Niccolò
BONIFAZIO Leonardo
PETIT Adrien
VAN GESTEL Dries
SOUPE Geoffrey
TURGIS Anthony
Alpecin-Fenix
VAN DER POEL Mathieu
MODOLO Sacha
SBARAGLI Kristian
DE BONDT Dries
THWAITES Scott
LEYSEN Senne
Arkéa-Samsic
BOUHANNI Nacer
MCLAY Dan
BOUDAT Thomas
VACHON Florian
PICHON Laurent
RUSSO Clément
Gazprom-RusVelo
VELASCO Simone
CANOLA Marco
CIMA Imerio
CIMA Damiano
KURIANOV Stephan
BOEV Igor
Vini Zabú KTM
VISCONTI Giovanni
GONZÁLEZ Roberto Carlos
MITRI James
FRAPPORTI Marco
MARENGO Umberto
ROTA Lorenzo
Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec
RUMAC Josip
BAGIOLI Nicola
RESTREPO Jhonotan
VENCHIARUTTI Nicola
BAIS Mattia
GAVAZZI Francesco
Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè
ALBANESE Vincenzo
FILOSI Iuri
FIORELLI Filippo
MAZZUCCO Fabio
SAVINI Daniel
TONELLI Alessandro
Watching Milan-San Remo on TV
The race is broadcast on Eurosport, with live coverage as well as a highlights package.
Our full guide on how to watch Milan – San Remo can be found here.
Elsewhere in the world, you can catch it live on Sporza (Dutch) and RTBF (French); Italy’s Rai Sport 2 and SBS in Australia will also show footage.
You can follow the action via Twitter, via the handle @Milano_Sanremo.
Milan-San Remo : Recent winners
2019: Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck–Quick-Step
2018: Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
2017: Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Team Sky
2016: Arnaud Démare (Fra) FDJ
2015: John Degenkolb (Ger) Giant-Alpecin
2014: Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha
2013: Gerald Ciolek (Ger) MTN-Qhubeka
2012: Simon Gerrans (Aus) GreenEdge
2011: Matt Goss (Aus) HTC-Highroad
2010: Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank
2009: Mark Cavendish (GBr) Columbia-Highroad
2008: Fabian Cancellara (Sui) CSC
2007: Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank
Previous editions: 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009
