The beginnings of Milan-San Remo
The Milan-San Remo cycling race was held for the first time in 1907 and has only been cancelled three times in its history: in 1916, 1944 and 1945 due to the world wars. It was founded by Eugenio Costamagna, the editor-in-chief of the Gazzetta dello Sport at the time. It was hoped that the race would boost tourism on the Riviera. Something similar had been attempted three years earlier with a car race between Milan and San Remo, but only two cars crossed the finish line. Of the 62 cyclists who set off on the 281-kilometre route on 14 April 1907, 33 crossed the finish line despite bad weather and roads that were almost impassable in places. The first edition was won by a Frenchman, Lucien Petit-Breton, but his Italian team-mate Giovanni Gerbi is said to have used dirty methods to help him by preventing Lucien-Breton's fiercest rival, Gustave Garrigou, from sprinting to victory.
The speciality
With a few exceptions and variations, Milan-San Remo has always followed the same route and, at just under 300 kilometres, is the longest cycling race of the road cycling season. For a long time, the only climb worth mentioning was the 532 metre high Passo del Turchino, which the cyclists cross by driving through a tunnel as they ride from Piedmont to Liguria and down to the sea. In the peloton, Milan-San Remo is the easiest of the classic one-day races to finish due to its route, but the most difficult to win due to its unpredictability.
The climbs
After the race in the 1950s was mainly decided in a bunch sprint, the organisers decided to make a groundbreaking change. A few kilometres before the finish, the route was routed over the Poggio di San Remo, a 160-metre-high hill. Even though the 3.7 kilometre long climb with an average gradient of 3.7 per cent is not exactly terrifying, it changed the character of the race finale and the Poggio is now one of the famous trademarks of Milan-San Remo. The same applies to the Cipressa, which was first ridden in 1982. Riders who want to avoid a bunch sprint at the finish try to tire out their opponents or leave them behind by attacking on the climb, which is around five and a half kilometres long and has an average gradient of four per cent.
The most curious race
In 1910, only seven of the 63 riders who started reached the finish line. The reason was the weather: the Passo del Turchino was covered in snow and freezing temperatures, which prompted many racers to seek shelter in nearby houses. One of the few who persevered was Frenchman Eugène Christophe, who won the race after 12:24 hours - the longest race time in history to date. Eugène Christophe went down in cycling history when his fork broke on the Col du Tourmalet during the 1913 Tour de France. He was given a minute's penalty by the commissaires because, after hours of walking, he allegedly asked for outside help to repair the fork in a village smithy. The runner-up at Milan-San Remo 1910, Luigi Ganna, winner in 1909, was subsequently disqualified because he had travelled part of the route by car.
Most victories
It comes as no surprise that the "greatest of them all" also left his mark on "La Primavera". The Belgian Eddy Merckx leads the all-time leaderboard with seven victories between 1966 and 1976. He also surpassed the first record holder Costante Girardengo. The Italian won the race six times between 1918 and 1928. Milan-San Remo is the only one of cycling's five monuments in which a German cyclist also appears at the top of the leaderboard. Erik Zabel shares third place with four victories (1997, 1998, 2000 and 2001) with Gino Bartali, who won in 1939, 1940, 1947 and 1950. The eleven-year gap between Bartali's first and fourth victory is also a historic mark.
The longest race
As a rule, the Milan-San Remo route remains just under the 300-kilometre mark. In 2020, however, the route was changed: This was triggered by a landslide around the turn of the year, which made the road up the Poggio, the Via Duca d'Aosta, impassable. As it was not clear for a long time whether the road would be passable again on race day, the route was generously rescheduled to allow for a selection of other climbs without the Poggio. Instead of the Passo del Turchino, the route to Alessandria led via Niella Belbo, the Colle di Nava and the Cipressa. In the end, however, the Poggio could still be ridden, extending the race to 305 kilometres - the longest in history.
The fastest race
The fastest and therefore shortest Milan-San Remo race to date took around half as long as the longest (1910, around twelve and a half hours). In 2024, the Belgian Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceunink) won after 288 kilometres in 6:14:44 hours, which corresponded to an hourly average of 46.1 km/h.
German winners
Milan-San Remo is not a bad place for German professional cyclists, it is the monument with the most German successes. The first German victory came in 1968 with Rudi Altig, who was born in Mannheim. Erik Zabel, who won on the Via Aurelia in 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2001, is at the top and in third place on the all-time list. In 2013, Gerald Ciolek from Cologne achieved a surprise success in San Remo, and in 2015 John Degenkolb was the last winner from Germany to enter the list of winners.
The most prominent non-winner
The dominant professional cyclist of the moment has so far cut his teeth on Milan-San Remo, although he has declared that he wants to win the "Classicissima". In his previous participations, the Slovenian Tadej Pogačar finished third in 2024 and 2025 behind the winners Jasper Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel respectively.
Development aid
One nation dominated the list of winners of the race until the 1950s: Italy. However, the winning streak ended in 1954 and until 1969 only foreign riders won the prestigious Italian race. The organisers saw a major reason for this in the fact that hardly any Italian teams were invited to the Paris-Nice long-distance race in March, which was seen as a decisive preparatory race for Milan-San Remo. For this reason, the Tirreno-Adriatico long-distance race was created in 1966 to give Italian riders an adequate opportunity to prepare for Milan-San Remo. Although the stage race has since become a popular part of the racing calendar, its success as preparation for Milan-San Remo has remained limited. With Michele Dancelli (1970) and Felice Gimondi (1974), only two Italians managed to break through the phalanx of foreign winners into the 1980s.
Thomas Musch
Publisher
