Milan-San Remo
 |
|
| Date | Mid-March |
|---|---|
| Region | Northwest Italy |
| English name | Milan–San Remo |
| Local name(s) | Milano–Sanremo (in Italian) |
| Nickname(s) |
The Spring classic (in English) La Classicissima di primavera (in Italian) |
| Discipline | Road |
| Competition | UCI World Tour |
| Type | One-day cycling race |
| Organiser | RCS Sport |
| Race director | Mauro Vegni |
| First edition | 1907 |
| Editions | 108 (as of 2017) |
| First winner |
 Lucien Petit-Breton (FRA)
|
| Most wins |
 Eddy Merckx (BEL) (7 wins) |
| Most recent |
 Michał Kwiatkowski (POL)
|
Milan–San Remo, also called "The Spring classic" or "La Classicissima", is an annual cycling race between Milan and Sanremo, in Northwest Italy. With a distance of 298 km (~185.2 miles) it is the longest professional one-day race in modern cycling. It is the first major classic race of the season, usually held on the third Saturday of March. The first edition was held in 1907.
Today it is one of the five Monuments of cycling. It was the opening race of the UCI Road World Cup series until the series was replaced by the UCI ProTour in 2005 and the World Tour in 2011. Milan–San Remo and the other four Monuments are now the one-day races in which most World Tour points are awarded (100 pts for the winner).
The most successful rider with seven victories is Belgian Eddy Merckx. Italian Costante Girardengo achieved 11 podium finishes in the interwar period, winning the race six times. In recent times, German Erik Zabel and Spaniard Óscar Freire have recorded four and three wins respectively.
Milan–San Remo is considered a sprinters classic because of its mainly flat course, whereas the other Italian Monument race, the Giro di Lombardia, held in autumn, is considered a climbers classic.
From 1999 to 2005, a women's race, the Primavera Rosa, was organized alongside the men's but at a shorter distance.
The idea of a bike race between Milan and Sanremo originated from the Unione Sportiva Sanremese. A first amateur race was held on 2 and 3 April 1906 over two stages (Milan-Acqui Terme and Acqui Terme-Sanremo); albeit with little success. Milanese journalist Tullo Morgagni, who had launched the Tour of Lombardy in 1905, put forth the idea of organizing a professional cycling race in a single day over the course. He proposed the project to Eugenio Costamagna, the director of the popular sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, who took on the organization.
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