Milan–San Remo 2023: Preview, schedule, how to watch men's one-day classic
The 2023 World Tour classics season continues with the first Monument of the year on Saturday 18 March. Find out the route, riders to watch, and the schedule for the race.
Cycling Road
Road cycling's one-day classics season continues this weekend with the season's first Monument race of the year – Milan – San Remo on Saturday (18 March).
The Monuments are the sport's five big one-day races with the most history, and Milan – San Remo – the most sprinter-friendly of them all – takes its usual place in March as teams gear up for the tricky cobbled classics season that follows.
This year, the peloton will ride a modified route starting from a new location south-west of Milan, although the last 264km of the nearly-300km course will follow the regular route along the Via Aurelia highway along the Ligurian coastline to San Remo.
Bahrain-Victorious rider Matej Mohoric is the defending champion.
Read on to discover this year's route, riders to watch, and how you can catch the action.
Milan – San Remo 2023 route
The race will take place over 294km (just under 183 miles), and actually differs from previous years with a new starting town.
This year's Monument will begin in the town of Abbiategrasso, southwest of Milan, and the opening 30km (18mi) of the race will be on flat roads before the course reaches Pavia, from where the traditional route to San Remo will be followed.
The race's traditional climbs: the long, gently-sloping Passo del Turchino before the trio of Capi Mele, Capi Cervo and Capi Berta, as well as the one-two finishing punch of the Cipressa and Poggio di Sanremo, all take their usual place on the route.
Riders will attack the Poggio with around 9km (5.5mi) left in the race, having already covered a leg-aching 285km (177mi), before descending into San Remo proper and the flat finish.
Riders to watch at Milan – San Remo 2023
Mohoric is the returning champion, among many former winners of the race who are expected on the start line in Abbiategrasso.
Jasper Stuyven, Wout van Aert, and Julian Alaphilippe – the last three winners before Mohoric – are all likely to have a go again, along with other climbers and punchers such as Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel. Last weekend's Strade Bianche winner Tom Pidcock will miss the race after suffering a concussion at the Tirreno-Adriatico.
However, the relative easiness of the climbs makes this race – one of the longest on the World Tour calendar – suitable for sprinters, or even the breakaway riders (should the chasing pack suffer in the wind).
Indeed, many sprinters have had joy here in the past, with Caleb Ewan – who finished second in 2021 – the most recent to make the podium.
Start tim and schedule of Milan - San Remo 2023
Times indicated here are an estimate, assuming an average race speed of 44 km/h. All times Central European Time.
18 March 2023
- 1010: Racing begins in Abbiategrasso (km 0)
- 1045: Race reaches Pavia (km 30)
- 1331: Race reaches Passo del Turchino climb (km 144)
- 1538: Race reaches Capo Mele climb (km 242)
- 1544: Race reaches Capo Cervo climb (km 247)
- 1556: Race reaches Capo Berta climb (km 255)
- 1623: Race reaches Cipressa climb (km 272)
- 1644: Race reaches final Poggio di Sanremo climb (km 288)
- 1650: Estimated race finish in San Remo (km 294)
How to watch Milan – San Remo 2023
The 2023 Milan – San Remo will be broadcast on the GCN+ subscription service globally.
Viewers in Europe have a selection of following the races on GCN+ or on Eurosport, which is also available on the Discovery+ streaming platform.