Milan-Sanremo

Infobox Cycling race
name = Milan-Sanremo
current_event =


date = Mid-March
region = North-west Italy
english = Milan-Sanremo
localnames = Milano-Sanremo it icon
nickname = La classica di Primavera it icon
The Spring classic en icon
discipline = Road race
competition =
type = Monument one-day race
organiser = RCS
director =
first = 1907
number = 99 (as of 2008)
last =
firstwinner = flagicon|FRA Lucien Petit-Breton
mostwins = flagicon|BEL Eddy Merckx (7 wins)
mostrecent = flagicon|SUI Fabian Cancellara

Milan-Sanremo or Milan-San Remo, nicknamed "la classica di Primavera" ("the Spring classic"), is an annual cycle race between Milan and Sanremo. Currently it is the longest of all professional one-day cycling races (294 km). The first edition was held in 1907, when the Argentine Frenchman Lucien Petit-Breton won. Today it is regarded as one of the 'Monuments' of the European professional cycling calendar, and was part of the UCI ProTour until 2007. In 2008, Milan-Sanremo was not part of the ProTour because of disagreement between the organisers and the UCI. [ [http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/protour_affair_complete UCI - ASO conflict] ]

Milan-Sanremo is often called the "sprinters' classic" while its sister Italian race the Giro di Lombardia held in the autumn season is often called the "climbers' classic".

History

In the early years the main difficulty of the race was the Passo del Turchino, but when cycling became more professional the climb was too far away from the finish-line to be decisive. Therefore in 1960 the Poggio, a climb only a few kilometres before the finish, was introduced in the route. In 1982 the Cipressa, a hill near Imperia was added. The other hills are the so-called 'capi', the Capo Mele, Capo Berta and Capo Cervo. Despite these hills the race most often ends in a mass sprint.

The most successful rider in Milan-Sanremo was Eddy Merckx; he won 7 times. In recent times, the most successful rider in the Via Roma of Sanremo has been German Erik Zabel who has won it four times in his career and only lost the 2004 edition to Óscar Freire because he lifted his arms to celebrate too early. It was the opening race of the UCI Road World Cup series until the series was replaced by the UCI ProTour in 2005.

Route

could not recognize him during the race.Fact|date=March 2007

Despite its flat parcours and long finishing straight, the sprinters teams have been foiled from time-to-time by a determined attack on the last hills towards the finish. Good examples of this include Laurent Jalabert and Maurizio Fondriest escaping the peloton in the 1995 edition and staying away to the finish line. In the 2003 race, classics specialist Italian Paolo Bettini attacked with several riders who all stayed away and in 2006 Filippo Pozzato and Alessandro Ballan attacked on the last hill and stayed away from the sprinters. The Fastest ever Milan San Remo over the usual 294 km course was set in 1990. Gianni Bugno set a time of 6h 25 m 06 seconds in 1990 to win the race by 4 seconds over Rolf Golz. This was an average speed of 45.8 km/h ( 28.45 mph). In the 2006 edition, the Peleton came close to this speed, with a 6h 29 m 41 seconds time, won by Filippo Pozzato. The extremes of the race include a time of 12h 24 m in 1910, set in a snowstorm. Only 4 finishers were classified despite several others making it in a long ways behind; compared to the modern ProTour event, where there is often 170-190 finishers.

Winners

Cycling pw rider|year=1999|name=Andrei Tchmil|nat=BEL|natvar=|team=
Lotto-Mobistar|teamnat=BEL|teamnatvar=

References

External links

*Official|http://www.gazzetta.it/grandeciclismo/misa_index.shtml
* [http://www.milansanremo.co.uk MilanSanRemo.co.uk]