Milan-San Remo 2023: Route and start list

Milan-San Remo 2023 route

The longest Monument of the season, this year's Milan-San Remo takes place on Saturday 18 March and will showcase some of the world's best riders over a mammoth 294km. 

The big news for this season a change in start location, to the town of Abbiategrasso, 22km south-west of Milan, where the race usually heads out from the city centre. The riders will rejoin the traditional route 30km into the race, from which point they will follow a well trodden route all the way to the finish on the famous Via Roma in San Remo. It will take them around six-and-a-half hours of riding.

Along the way riders will encounter the climb of the Passo Turchino at around the halfway mark, followed by the three small capi – the Capo Mele, Cervo and Berta – at around the 250km mark as the race approaches its finale. With 22km to go, riders crest the Cipressa (5.6km at 4.1%) and then finally, those who are left tackle the Poggio (3.7km at 3.7%). Often a small gap will go over the top – it then comes down to whether the escapees can cling on to their advantage on the sinuous descent and the flat 2km to the finish, or whether the chasing bunch can bring them back and unleash the sprinters within.

Milan-San Remo route history

Despite being known as the ‘Sprinters' Classic’, the Italian race would not be as prestigious as it is were it a straightforward procession to a bunch sprint, and instead the race is characterised by its tortuous length, thrilling conclusion and delicate balancing act between sprinters and attackers.

The introduction of La Manie in 2008 gave the advantage to attacking puncheurs, as a difficult, significantly-positioned climb to gain an advantage over those hoping for a bunch sprint. It contributed to a handful of more selective editions - Fabian Cancellara won from a solo break in 2008 and Simon Gerrans from a group of three in 2010, and in both 2011 and 2013 a group of seven contested the finish, won by Matt Goss and Gerald Ciolek respectively.

When La Manie was dropped in 2014, the organiser's initial intention had been to make the route even harder by replacing it with the Pompeiana in a slot far closer to the finish. But that climb was deemed unsafe due to the possibility of landslides, so since 2014, the race has featured neither climb.

Now, the dynamic of the route has shifted comprehensively back to the sprinters.

After Alexander Kristoff (then Katusha) won the sprint from a sizeable peloton in 2014, the finish was moved back to its traditional finishing straight of Via Roma, and another sprinter was triumphant in the form of John Degenkolb (then Giant-Alpecin) in 2015 and Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) in 2016.

For the bold and the brave, the Cipressa provides a potential launchpad for an attack at just over 20km from the finish, but for the more realistic, it’s the Poggio.

On the back of around 280km of racing the riders are exhausted upon reaching it, and, peaking at 5.5km from the finish, any rider who goes over the top first with a gap has a chance of zooming down the descent and holding off the sprinters for victory on the Via Roma.

Only two British riders have emerged victorious at the race, with Tom Simpson being the first back in 1964 for Peugeot-BP-Engelbert team. The next came several years later in 2009, when Mark Cavendish (then Team Columbia-High Road) took victory in a bunch sprint. British champion Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers) has come close on various occasions.

Milan-San Remo 2023 provisional start list

Team Jumbo-Visma

TRATNIK Jan
AFFINI Edoardo
LAPORTE Christophe
VALTER Attila
VAN AERT Wout

Soudal-Quick Step

LAMPAERT Yves
ALAPHILIPPE Julian

UAE Team Emirates

COVI Alessandro
FORMOLO Davide
POGAČAR Tadej

AG2R Citroën

BONNAMOUR Franck
VAN AVERMAET Greg
NAESEN Oliver

Trek-Segafredo

BARONCINI Filippo
PEDERSEN Mads
KIRSCH Alex
STUYVEN Jasper

Bora-Hansgrohe

BENNETT Sam

Israel-Premier Tech

NIZZOLO Giacomo

Groupama-FDJ

GENIETS Kevin
DÉMARE Arnaud

Team Jayco-AlUla

MATTHEWS Michael

Cofidis

THOMAS Benjamin

Ineos Grenadiers

KWIATKOWSKI Michał
PIDCOCK Thomas
VIVIANI Elia
GANNA Filippo

Astana Qazaqstan Team

BATTISTELLA Samuela

Bahrain Victorious

MOHORIČ Matej
CARUSO Damiano
MILAN Jonathan
PASQUALON Andrea
BILBAO Pello

Lotto-Dstny

DE LIE Arneau
EENKHOORN Pascal
EWAN Caleb

EF Education-EasyPost

PICCOLO Andrea
CORT Magnus

Movistar Team

GARCÍA CORTINA Iván

Team DSM

Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux

GIRMAY HAILU Biniam
TEUNISSEN Mike

Alpecin-Deceuninck

VAN DER POEL Mathieu
PHILIPSEN Jasper
KRAGH ANDERSEN Søren
HERMANS Quinten

TotalEnergies

BODNAR Maciej
OSS Daniel
SAGAN Peter

Arkéa-Samsic

BARGUIL Warren
MOZZATO Luca
LOUVEL Matis

Green Project-Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè

Eolo-Kometa

Watching Milan-San Remo on TV

The race is broadcast on Eurosport and GCN Race Pass, with live coverage as well as a highlights package.

Our full guide on how to watch Milan - San Remo can be found here.

Elsewhere in the world, you can catch it live on Sporza (Dutch) and RTBF (French); Italy's Rai Sport 2 and SBS in Australia will also show footage.

You can follow the action via Twitter, via the handle @Milano_Sanremo.

Milan-San Remo: Recent winners

2021: Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo
2020: Wout van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma
2019: Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck–Quick-Step
2018: Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
2017: Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Team Sky
2016: Arnaud Démare (Fra) FDJ
2015: John Degenkolb (Ger) Giant-Alpecin
2014: Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha
2013: Gerald Ciolek (Ger) MTN-Qhubeka
2012: Simon Gerrans (Aus) GreenEdge
2011: Matt Goss (Aus) HTC-Highroad
2010: Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank
2009: Mark Cavendish (GBr) Columbia-Highroad
2008: Fabian Cancellara (Sui) CSC
2007: Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank

Previous editions: 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009