Milan-San Remo 2011

The road

At the start

Open season, 298 kilometres long

Nobody rolls out of Milan as the favourite, because everybody does. Cavendish won here in 2009, Freire is chasing a fourth, Petacchi and Boonen are fast enough on their day; Gilbert has been flying at Tirreno-Adriatico, and Cancellara and Pozzato both know how to strip a sprinter of his legs on the capi. Italy has not won its own race since 2006. Seven hours to sort it out, and Le Manie at 93 kilometres to go.

How it was won

1. 1286 km to go

   Miyazawa rides for Japan

   Twelve kilometres out of Milan, Takashi Miyazawa attacks with Ignatiev, De Marchi and Sijmens. Ten days after the earthquake, the Japanese champion spends his day on the front of La Primavera, and the peloton lets the four of them go.

2. 293 km to go

   The crash at the foot of Le Manie

   A touch of wheels just before the climb puts world champion Thor Hushovd on the tarmac and traps him behind. The news runs through the bunch like a lit fuse, and when Freire goes down on the descent the pace at the front is already savage.

3. 387 km to go

   Forty-four ride away

   Omega Pharma-Lotto and BMC drag an elite forty-four clear off the descent while the bunch shatters into four groups. Cavendish, Farrar, Hushovd and Freire are all on the wrong side of it, and by the time they organise, the gap is two minutes. San Remo will not be decided by the sprinters — or so everyone believes.

4. 48 km to go

   Van Avermaet jumps on the Poggio

   Two kilometres from the top, Van Avermaet slips away as Offredo hesitates on O'Grady's wheel. Behind, Nibali opens fire — once with Gilbert and Ballan for company, then again, alone and unanswerable.

5. 56 km to go

   Over the top, twelve seconds

   Van Avermaet crests the Poggio with twelve seconds and Nibali hauls Offredo and O'Grady up behind him. Further down the climb the forty-four are strewn across the hillside, Boonen, Petacchi and Haussler among them.

6. 62 km to go

   Cancellara closes it down

   Off the descent Cancellara makes mincemeat of the gap and the race comes back together in the streets of San Remo. Offredo, Gilbert and Nibali keep throwing punches, and every one of them is really a lead-out.

7. 7At the line

   Goss wins the Lungomare

   Eight riders on the Lungomare Italo Calvino, and the one who has attacked least is the one with something left. Matthew Goss comes off Cancellara's shoulder and goes past him so fast he has time to sit up — a sprinter winning a race the sprinters were thrown out of, 200 kilometres from home, and the first Australian to take Milan-San Remo.

The result