Milan-San Remo route unchanged for 2013

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The 2013 Milan-San Remo will again follow the traditional 298km route and end with the climbs of the Cipressa and Poggio but race organisers RCS Sport are considering adding extra climbs for the future to give more riders a chance of victory in the first major Classic of the season.

"Next year's route won't change. Because if we did make changes, we'd want to announce well in advance. However we are looking how we can open up the race and increase the number of potential winners," Mauro Vegni –the technical manager for all of RCS Sport races said in a recent interview on Radio Manà Manà Sport.

"By studying changes, we're not saying that the winners of the last year years aren't great riders but simply because when riders try to attack on the Poggio their efforts are often in vain because of the distance between the summit of the climb and the finish. We're trying to understand how we can change the route to give the riders who attack on the Cipressa and the Poggio a better chance of victory," Vegni said.

The race has traditionally finished in the centre of San Remo, on the Via Roma. In recent years the finish has been on the seafront, three kilometres from the end of the twisting descent. In the eighties and early nineties the race ended on Corso Cavallotti, less than a kilometre from the Poggio, helping breakaway attempts hold off the sprinters. RCS Sport could decide to move the finish of the race back to Corso Cavallotti, to tip the race in favour of the attackers.

This year's Milan-San Remo will be held on Saturday March 16.

Giro del Lazio and Strade Bianche weekend double?

Vegni revealed he has also been working on other races in the RCS Sport portfolio and he hopes to revive the Giro del Lazio one-day race.

The race has been given a new date on the UCI Europe Tour calendar and is scheduled for Saturday March 2 –the day before the Strade Bianche race on the dirt roads of Tuscany and a few days before the start of Tirreno-Adriatico.

Vegni –who comes from Lazio region, hopes to bring professional racing back to the Italian capital, with a section on the Appia Antica Roman cobbled road and the finish in the centre of the eternal city.

"We hope to revive what was a real Italian Classic," Vegni said. "We've still got to study and analyse if we can do the race but we've secured the date to be ready."