As spring knocks on the door, the Monuments come out of the ground and it is up to "la Primavera" to open the most exciting period of the season. And as every year, the awakening is gentle: the longest race of the calendar will first stretch 294 km through the plain of Po for a procession conducive to napping. Before the burst in the final electric on the Riviera, where everything is played on a roll of the dice.

The novelty this year will be the departure, no longer given in Milan but in Abbiategrasso, 22 km southwest of the Lombard metropolis. For the rest, we will be on the classic with the last two balconies of the course, the Cipressa and especially the Poggio, placed 5.5 terminals from the finish, as a justice of the peace of a race long reserved for sprinters.

But that was before.

You have to go back to 2016 and the victory of the Frenchman Arnaud Démare to find the trace of a massive arrival on the Via Roma.

Since then, "la Classicissima" has only given itself to strong men, left alone or in small groups in the final: punchers of the caliber of Julian Alaphilippe, winner in 2019, or Wout Van Aert, his successor, who emptied the Poggio before raising his arms in Sanremo.

French rider Julian Alaphilippe wins the classic Milan Sanremo, March 23, 2019 © Marco BERTORELLO / AFP/Archives

"Easy to finish, hard to win"

"This race is getting tougher and harder. In the Poggio, it became very complicated. But I think it's still possible for profiles like mine to win," said Arnaud Démare, who will try his luck again on Saturday with several other big thighs such as Jasper Philipsen, Arnaud De Lie, Caleb Ewan, Mads Pedersen, Fabio Jakobsen or Biniam Girmay.

But the preferred scenario remains a new coup d'éclat from afar, in the Poggio, or even in the Cipressa where Tadej Pogacar, whose taste for long raids is verified race after race, will be monitored like milk on fire.

Team UAE leader Tadej Pogacar crosses the Paris-Nice line as a winner, yellow jersey on his back, on March 12, 2023 on the Promenade des Anglais © Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP/Archives

"I imagined several scenarios in my head. Milan-Sanremo is as beautiful as it is unpredictable. Unable to designate a favorite. It's an easy race to finish but hard to win. There are so many possibilities," said the Slovenian who knows the area very well, having lived in Monaco, and comes out of a Paris-Nice where he was imperial.

For many riders, once the usual precautions have been recalled, the number one favourite is not Pogacar, but Wout Van Aert who so impressed Julian Alaphilippe on Tirreno-Adriatico last week that the Frenchman bombarded him as "favourite for all the races to come".

James Bond

In fact, the Belgian ticks a lot of boxes to win in Sanremo, able to make the difference in the Poggio but also to win in a collective sprint.

Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel during the last "Strade Bianche", on March 4, 2023 in Tuscany © Marco BERTORELLO / AFP/Archives

His main opponents, besides Pogacar, will be, as often, his great Dutch rival Mathieu van der Poel, who seems to be mounting pressure, and Alaphilippe.

But a surprise is not excluded on a race that also likes theatrical shots like the spectacular victory in 2022 of Matej Mohoric.

The great escape of the facetious Slovenian, who had made the trunk by brushing walls and sidewalks in the descent of the Poggio on his telescopic seatpost borrowed from the mountain bike, had entered directly into the legend of the Primavera.

Everyone still remembers the show of the outfielder during but also after the race when he told how, during the dull parade to Sanremo, he had passed "in front of all the favorites singing the tune of James Bond" to show them his find and tell them: "do not try to follow me in the Poggio, it is at your own risk".

Slovenia's Matej Mohoric, winner of the last edition of Milan Sanremo, March 19, 2022 © Marco BERTORELLO / AFP/Archives

He will return on Saturday, with his telescopic rod, to try again. But this time, he will be expected at the turn.

© 2023 AFP