Milan-San Remo 2016

The road

At the start

Sagan wears number one on the Riviera

Milan, and the 107th Primavera starts without its defending champion — John Degenkolb is home mending a training crash — so number one goes on Peter Sagan's back, a world champion still chasing a Monument in the rainbow jersey. Greg Van Avermaet has beaten him twice this spring; Fabian Cancellara rides his last San Remo. Behind them the fast men wait for Via Roma, where 300 kilometres come down to a bike length.

How it was won

1. 1281 km to go

   Eleven go clear at Binasco

   The flag drops in Milan and the fight lasts fourteen kilometres. Eleven riders — Bagdonas, Barta, Kluge, Tjallingii among them — slip away on the road out of Binasco and the peloton lets the day settle. Their lead peaks at 10:35.

2. 225 km to go

   The Cipressa swallows the break

   Twenty-five kilometres from Via Roma, on the ramps above Santo Stefano, the last of the eleven are reeled in. Two hundred and seventy kilometres of work ends in the space of a corner.

3. 322 km to go

   Visconti attacks over the top

   Giovanni Visconti jumps halfway up the Cipressa and drags Ian Stannard with him. Over the summit and down the descent, Oss, Montaguti and Sabatini join them — but Sabatini will not work with Gaviria still in the bunch behind, and the nine flat kilometres to the Poggio belong to the peloton.

4. 46 km to go

   Kwiatkowski goes on the Poggio

   The Poggio comes and almost nobody dares. Michal Kwiatkowski is the one real threat, springing clear near the summit with six kilometres left, and the descent to the sea is ridden with everything still open.

5. 51 km to go

   Boasson Hagen's kilometre

   Inside the final thousand metres Edvald Boasson Hagen throws himself off the front with Greg Van Avermaet glued to his wheel. For a few seconds the Monument looks like theirs.

6. 6At the line

   The touch of wheels at the last corner

   Fernando Gaviria comes off the final bend at the head of the race, the fastest man in San Remo — and touches a wheel. He goes down hard in the last few hundred metres, taking the world champion's line with him: Sagan checks, and after 295 kilometres there is no getting that speed back.

7. 7At the line

   Démare by half a bike length

   Roelandts leads out what is left of the sprint, Bouhanni's chain jumps with the line in sight, and out of the wreckage comes Arnaud Démare — brought back to the front only minutes earlier — going past on the right with Ben Swift on his wheel and unable to come round. Half a bike length, and France has its Monument again.

The result