A look at the route and the favorites for the first Monument of the year, where Alpecin-Premier Tech is hunting an incredible fourth straight win.
Kristof Ramon, Cor Vos
On the heels of the spring equinox on Friday comes Saturday’s Classicissima di primavera: Milan-San Remo.
What was once a reliably sprinter-friendly race has developed, in recent years, into a nail-biter that reliably offers perhaps the best finale in one-day racing all season. This year, as has been the case for the past several editions, the two biggest Classics stars in cycling are set to do battle once more, as Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) looks to finally get over the hump in a race that Mathieu van der Poel has won twice, bookending a win by his Alpecin-Premier Tech teammate Jasper Philipsen.
Assuming you’ve already checked out the preview of the women’s race, here’s what you need to know ahead of the men’s Milan-San Remo 2026.
The favorites
We’ll break down the contenders more thoroughly below, but as a sneak-peek, here are our top favorites for Saturday’s race.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Mathieu van der Poel
⭐⭐⭐⭐: Tadej Pogačar
⭐⭐⭐: Filippo Ganna, Jasper Philipsen, Isaac del Toro, Mads Pedersen, Tom Pidcock
⭐⭐: Matthew Brennan, Wout van Aert, Matteo Jorgenson, Paul Magnier, Romain Gregoire
⭐: Tobias Lund Andresen, Christophe Laporte, Biniam Girmay, Matej Mohorič, Tobias Halland Johannessen, Primož Roglič, Julian Alaphilippe
When and how to watch
The men’s Milan-San Remo starts on Saturday at 10:00 am CET (5:00 am EDT/8:00 pm AEDT). The race is set to finish at around 5:00 pm CET (12:00 pm EDT/3:00 am AEDT), and you can expect post-race analysis from How the Race was Won over on YouTube about an hour and a half after the race.
Streaming: TNT Sports (UK); Max (US); FloBikes (CAN); SBS (AUS). A quick reminder that next week, racing coverage for UK viewers migrates from TNT Sports to HBO Max. As always, our how to watch guide has the details on the full WorldTour calendar.
How to watch pro bike racing in 2026
A complete guide for how to watch the Tour de France and every 2026 men’s and women’s WorldTour road race for audiences in the US, Australia, Canada, and the UK, plus tips on how to save money.
The route and the weather
Organizers have added to the length of Milan-San Remo to make it a 298 km affair, but the route alterations are all in the very early goings, with the good stuff unchanged from recent editions. As usual, you’re unlikely to see much action for the first several hours, but the finale should be as thrilling as ever.
After rolling out from Pavia, the race meanders in a generally southerly direction on mostly flat roads before a long but very gentle uphill drag to the start of the Passo del Turchino, the highest climb in the race. From the top it’s a fast descent down to the shores of the Mediterranean, which the bunch will reach near the midway point of the race. They will then turn southwest and head down the Ligurian coast for the rest of the way.
The next 70 km or cover gently rolling hills until the peloton enters the final 60 km and nears the first of the “tre capi.” None of the Capo Mele, Capo Cervo, and Capo Berta are hard by WorldTour standards but coming in quick succession and with bigger challenges ahead, they do herald an increase in pace.
After the Capo Berta is a relatively flat stretch in the run-in to the Cipressa, the first of the two iconic final climbs of Milan-San Remo, and the harder one at 4.1% over 5.6 km. It was here that an attack by Pogačar blew the field apart last year, although he couldn’t quite shake everyone.
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