Milano-Sanremo

It is 64 days untill the start of Milano-Sanremo at March 21st 2026.

In late nineteenth-century Italy, day-long endurance sports became highly popular, with participants striving to cover as much distance as possible and prove themselves audax, audacious. In 1904, French journalist and Tour de France director Henri Desgranges introduced formal Audax regulations, supported by his newspaper L’Auto. A year later, a local Audax cycling group in San Remo proposed a race between Milan, Italy’s financial and industrial hub, and San Remo, a popular tourist destination on the Riviera, where a new casino opened.

Gazzetta dello Sport director Eugenio Costamagna learned of the idea. Already a major force in organizing and covering sports in Italy, Costamagna preferred the concept of a car race along the same route, commonly taken by Milanese tourists towards holiday on the Riviera coast. In the first week of April 1906, Milano-San Remo was held as a car race over two stages: Milan to Acqui Terme to San Remo, designed to showcase the success of low-cost, small cars. Fourteen teams participated, finishing two days later in front of the casino.

However, the race quickly faded from memory as cars with more powerful engines came to dominate Europe’s racing scene. With automobiles no longer the focus, the original idea found a second chance. Tullo Morgagni, a Gazzetta dello Sport journalist and initiator of the Giro di Lombardia in 1905, proposed once again using the route for a one-day cycling race. This time, the idea succeeded. The first edition, covering 281 kilometers, took place on April 14, 1907.