Milan – Sanremo
The cycling race Milan-San Remo , with over 290 kilometers, the longest classic one-day races in cycling .
It is counted among the five so-called monuments of cycling and belonged to the Cycling World Cup from 1989 to 2004 , then for three years to the UCI ProTour, which was introduced in 2005 . Since 2011 the race has been part of the successor series UCI WorldTour .
The organizer of the race is the RCS MediaGroup , which also organizes the Giro d'Italia , as well as the Lombardy Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico .
Event
The most important classic in Italy alongside the Tour of Lombardy took place every year on a Saturday at the end of March until 2012, before the 2013 edition was put on Sunday for traffic reasons. It was nicknamed La Primavera (spring); sometimes this epithet is also read as “prima vera corsa”, ie the “first real bike race” of the year. La Classicissima , as the race is also respectfully called, took place for the first time in 1907 and was the first race in this racing series from 1989 until the ten-event cycling world cup was abolished . The race has been organized by the Gazzetta dello Sport since it was first held. The prize money for the first event was 18 euros (converted to the 2004 level).
Originally, Milan-Sanremo was held as a car race in 1904 and was used to promote the casino in Sanremo. However, only two vehicles reached Sanremo, so three years later the race was held for racing cyclists . In the first Milan-Sanremo cycle race on April 14, 1907, 33 racing drivers took part. The winner was the Frenchman Lucien Mazan with an average speed of 26.6 km / h. In 2010 the average speed was around 43 km / h. The participants in the first race received an expense allowance of five lire .
The edition planned for March 21, 2020 has been canceled due to regulatory requirements in connection with the spread of COVID-19 in Italy . On August 8, 2020, the race was rescheduled with a significantly changed route. The changed route had become necessary because most of the mayors on the coastal section in front of Imperia did not want to erect a corona-compliant barrier during the main holiday season. This made the 111th edition of Milan-San Remo the longest in its history.
route
The route from Milan to Sanremo changes only slightly from year to year. In contrast to Paris – Roubaix , which begins 80 kilometers north of Paris in Compiègne , Milan – Sanremo actually begins in Milan, more precisely in Piazza Castello . The route then leads via Binasco , Pavia , Voghera , Tortona , Novi Ligure , Ovada and the Turchino Pass - at 588 meters the highest point on the route - to the Mediterranean coast . This is reached on the western periphery of Genoa . The following passages are especially spectacular, they lead - mostly following the historic Via Aurelia - directly along the Italian Riviera .
Up until a few years ago, the almost completely flat race was decided on several short climbs just before the end of the route. These include the ascent to Cipressa (about 20 kilometers from the finish at an altitude of 240 meters) and the ascent to Poggio di Sanremo (about six kilometers from the finish at 162 meters above sea level). In cycling, one also speaks briefly of the Cipressa and the Poggio . Also the Capo Mele (65 m), the Capo Cervo (77 m) and the Capo Berta (130 m).
In the last few years, however, these climbs, known as “Capi”, rarely led to a selection, so that the decision is now mostly carried out in a mass sprint. This can also be seen in the list of winners, which was recently dominated by sprinters like Erik Zabel , Mario Cipollini , Óscar Freire , Alessandro Petacchi , Mark Cavendish and Gerald Ciolek .
Palmarès
The Belgian Eddy Merckx has the most victories at the “Classicissima” . He won a total of seven times in eleven years between 1966 and 1976. Behind Costante Girardengo (six wins) and next to Gino Bartali in third place in the all-time ranking is Erik Zabel , who won four times in Sanremo between 1997 and 2001.
See also
Web links
- La Gazzetta dello Sport: Milano – Sanremo
- Milan – Sanremo in the Radsportseiten.net database
References and comments
- ↑ velonews.com of November 29, 2012: RCS Sport clarifies move of Milan-San Remo and Giro di Lombardia to Sundays
- ↑ Milan-Sanremo on catenacycling.com (Italian)
- ↑ Les Woodland: The Summit of Frozenness . In: Procycling (German edition) . March, 2004, p. 100 .
- ↑ Herbie Sykes: Two steps forward . Identity of a race. In: Procycling , German edition . May, 2017, p. 70 ff. (78) .
- ^ Tirreno - Adriatico, Milan - Sanremo and Giro di Sicilia postponed. In: radsport-news.com. March 6, 2020, accessed March 6, 2020 .
- ↑ Milan – San Remo 2020. Van Aert defeats Alaphilippe in a two-man sprint , accessed on August 10, 2020
- ↑ Costante Girardengo was disqualified.
- ↑ Jean-Luc Vandenbroucke, who was originally third, was disqualified.