The pre-race chatter around the 2026 Milan-San Remo is revolving around the expected Mathieu van der Poel vs Tadej Pogačar climbing battle in the men’s race, and Lorena Wiebes chances of defending her title in a sprint in the women’s race.
Already across the two editions this weekend, we can see how this race can play out in many different ways: one race is expected to blow up on the Cipressa, whilst a sprinter is the favourite in the other.
In the microcosm of this year and last year, it might be easy to think that the attacking finales we’ve seen recently are the only ways Milan-San Remo can go, but in truth, the longest Classic of all also boasts the longest list of ways to win and candidates for victory.
In the breathless, high-tension finale, timing and tactics count as much as strength, and whether you go on the Cipressa, wait for the Poggio, go wild on the descent or even pounce on the Via Roma, there are multiple points at which the race can be won.
Ahead of this weekend’s edition, we went into the archives to pull out this fantastic feature by our former Features Editor Barry Ryan, where he looks back at ten different ways in which the race has been won over the years.
This feature originally appeared in 2015.
Solo clear on the Turchino – Fausto Coppi, 1946
It’s not easy to pinpoint precisely when and where Fausto Coppi transfigured into the quasi-mystical figure he is recalled as today, but the Turchino pass at the 1946 Milan-San Remo seems as likely a place as any.
By that point, Milan-San Remo’s late March date had already established it as La Primavera, the race that heralded the end of winter and the coming of spring, and the Turchino was the landmark of this liminality. Before the climb, the riders rolled their way through the frigid air of the northern Italian plain for one hundred miles. After cresting the summit, they dropped towards the glistening Riviera and the promise of spring.
The 1946 edition of Milan-San Remo was also the first after World War II and the bitter civil war that had followed the collapse of fascism in Italy, and that background only added to the symbolism of the race and its passage over the Turchino. Coppi was part of a five-man group that broke clear early on, and once on the slopes of the Turchino, he seemed to climb into another realm. The Frenchman Lucien Teisseire was the…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…