Milan-San Remo 2013

The road

At the start

Everyone is watching Peter Sagan

Milan, and a Classicissima 106 years old today, with as clear a favourite as it has had in years. Peter Sagan comes off Tirreno-Adriatico able to follow the Poggio attacks and win the sprint after, and the directeurs sportifs have picked him almost to a man. Cancellara was second here last year, Nibali has attacked on the Poggio twice, and Boonen and Degenkolb wait for a bunch. Snow fell on the Turchino overnight.

How it was won

1. 1181 km to go

   The race stops at Ovada

   Snow is falling on the Turchino and the organisers have run out of answers: the race will halt here and be carried forty-six kilometres by team bus. The six who slipped away out of Milan spend the last hour riding it like a time trial to save what they can of a ten-minute lead, and reach the barriers with 7:10 and nowhere to spend it.

2. 2134 km to go

   Restart at Cogoleto, in the rain

   More than an hour in the buses, and the race is set down again in cold, heavy rain with Le Manie struck off as well. Not everyone comes back out: Tom Boonen stays aboard the Omega Pharma bus with hard words for the organisers, and the abandons keep coming all afternoon.

3. 341 km to go

   Three left in front

   Forty kilometres from San Remo the road finally starts climbing, and only three of the six are still out there. Bak, Rosa and Belkov tip over the Capo Berta with two minutes, soaked through, riding for a race that has already had half of itself taken away.

4. 425 km to go

   The Cipressa thins it out

   Sylvain Chavanel lights the first attack and it goes nowhere, but the pace does the work anyway. Edvald Boasson Hagen slides off the back, and Greipel, Gerrans and Petacchi go with him. About forty riders crest the Cipressa, and Philippe Gilbert leads them down in the rainbow jersey, hunting a gap that never opens.

5. 56 km to go

   Chavanel and Stannard over the Poggio

   The Poggio in the wet, and the race finally breaks. Chavanel goes again and this time Ian Stannard is with him; the two swing over the summit with daylight and a descent that has been slick since Cogoleto. Behind them Peter Sagan takes the first hairpin like a man who has already decided how the day ends, Fabian Cancellara on his wheel, Luca Paolini and Gerald Ciolek hanging on — and the gap shrinks at every corner.

6. 64 km to go

   Caught with four to go

   The counter swallows Chavanel and Stannard just inside four kilometres. Stannard jumps at once; Sagan closes it down himself and keeps going; Cancellara drags him back. Stannard tries once more at 1.8 kilometres, and seven riders come into the final kilometre together, all watching each other.

7. 7At the line

   Ciolek takes the Via Roma

   It is Taylor Phinney, tearing across from behind, who lights the sprint nobody else wants to start. Gerald Ciolek comes off the wheels and holds Sagan and Cancellara all the way to the line — a Monument on the day the weather took the race apart, and the first for the South African MTN-Qhubeka team.

The result