This Saturday’s Milan-San Remo ushers in the Monument season

Now that concurrent WorldTour stages races Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico are over, it’s time for the schedule to refocus on one-day Classics, starting with Saturday’s Milan-San Remo, the first Monument of 2025. There’s extra excitement this year as the women’s edition is back. Once called the Primavera Classic (the last winner Trixi Worrack) it was held between 1999 and 2005, but now it’s a new WorldTour addition called Milan-San Remo Donne.

Last Season

Last year Tadej Pogačar attacked on the Poggio from a group of 50. First the Slovenian was checked and then his compatriot, 2022 champion Matej Mohorič, descended like a demon. However, the climax ended up being a sprint among a dozen, with Jasper Philipsen earning his first Monument, Michael Matthews runner-up and Pogačar third.

The Favourites

All the chaps mentioned above will return to skirmish for the title, as will Mads Pedersen, who comes off a strong Paris-Nice. Filippo Ganna had a heck of a Tirreno-Adriatico in coming runner-up, as did Tom Pidcock, sixth spot tying his best-ever GC place in a WorldTour major stage race. Nickolas Zukowsky, who toiled at the front of the peloton for Pidcock at the Race of the Two Seas, is the lone Canadian.

Most of the big names will contest the women’s race. FDJ-Suez’s Strade Bianche victor Demi Vollering and Juliette Labous will lock horns with world champion Lotte Kopecky, Blanka Vas (runner-up in Sunday’s WorldTour Trofeo Alfredo Binda) and Lorena Wiebes of SD Worx-Protime. Katarzyna Niewiadoma will try to put her Strade Bianche disappointment behind her. Fresh off her third Trofeo Alfredo Binda trophy in four seasons, Elisa Balsalmo is Lidl-Trek’s strongest. Elisa Longo Borghini won the UAE Tour for her new UAE Team ADQ outfit and placed 10th at Trofeo Alfredo Binda. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Marianne Vos make a formidable Visma-Lease a Bike duo.

The Canadian contingent is Olivia Baril after a successful Trofeo Alfredo Binda, Sarah van Dam, Simone Boilard, Magdeleine Vallieres and her teammate Alison Jackson, back from six weeks’ recovery for a broken scaphoid suffered in the UAE Tour.

The Courses

The first half of the 288 km will travel south from Pavia to the first climb of the day, sharp little Passo Turchino. After a 12 km descent to the west of Genoa, the race heads southwest along the Ligurian coast, finally reaching the three Capi at the 234 km point. With 27.5 km to go the 6-km Cipressa will make a selection. The famous Poggio crests with 5.5 km to the line. A harrowing descent past the greenhouses leads to the finish line on Via Roma.

The women’s edition starts in Genoa and second half of the men’s race for 156 km in total. The three Capi, Cipressa and Poggio are all accounted for.

If you want to catch Saturday’s action, head on over to FloBikes.com