A Classic Race

The most predictable thing about Milan-San Remo is the debate about its predictability.

Trek rider Koen De Kort says there is a moment in every Milan-San Remo where strength and illusions dissolve. “It is 40km longer than anything else we ride, but you go 200km without even knowing what your legs are like because it feels so easy. Then it starts and ends in a flash: you can go from feeling good to useless in the first 100m of the Poggio.”

Riders have strained to impart the complexities of ‘La Classicissima’ for decades, yet to many fans it remains the most predictable, least watchable of the Monuments. As much as the two iconic climbs that used to inspire decisive attacks, the Cipressa and the Poggio, the post-race debate about whether the 298km route needs an overhaul is now the race’s most reliable tradition.