Milan-Sanremo and IL Lombardia Move to Sundays

The UCI has announced that the Professional Cycling Council (PCC) has accepted the request filed by RCS to modify the dates of the Milano-Sanremo and Il Lombardia events in 2013.

The two races will both take place on a Sunday, the dates are as follows: March 17th for Milano-Sanremo and October 6th for Il Lombardia (with the presentation of the Giro d’Italia which will be organized on the following day, Monday October 7th).

RCS has explained their reasons for making the change as follows (noting that other great classics of cycling all take place on Sunday, Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, Amstel Gold Race, Liège - Bastogne - Liège):

1) Improving the safety of the race: Sunday is a day on Italian roads with less traffic compared to Saturday. This would cause less disruption to both the running of the event and the residents.

2) Increased visibility of global television: Sunday is a day of sport. We believe that in a world view, Milan - Sanremo and Il Lombardia, which are international competitions, may be more fully appreciated and followed on television around the world. Some are worried that we would be competing with other sporting events, we believe in the power of cycling and prestige of our racing monument.

3) We would like to propose for 2014 amateur races related to the two races. The idea is to organize the races in the area of the finish line cities. We believe that Sunday could be the perfect day for this project.


Regarding these changes Fabian Cancellara has already expressed his concern via twitter that for next year there are too many days (four) of non-competition between the end of Tirreno - Adriatico and Milan - Sanremo. Vegni Mauro (RCS) and his team are working hard to find an appropriate solution to be able to have the race finish on Thursday or Friday.

What do you think? You can let RCS know by tweeting @Milano_Sanremo e @Il_Lombardia

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