Milan-San Remo provisional start list

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Milan-San Remo race organisers RCS Sport have released the provisional start list for the 107th edition of La Classicissima featuring the likes of World Champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff), former winners Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo), Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) and Filippo Pozzato (Southeast-Venezuela).

2015 champion John Degenkolb will miss the race as he continues to recover from injuries sustained in a training ride accident when he and his Giant-Alpecin teammates were hit by a car in Spain.

The 18 WorldTours teams will line up in Milan's Piazza del Duomo on March 19 alongside seven Pro-Continental wild card teams; Androni Giocattoli–Sidermec, Bardiani–CSF, Bora–Argon 18, CCC–Sprandi–Polkowice, Cofidis, Southeast–Venezuela and Team Novo Nordisk. The 2016 edition of the race is almost identical to the 2015 percoroso with traffic work at Genova-Voltri reducing the length of the race from 293 to 291 kilometres.

Twice fourth and once a runner-up, Sagan will start the race as one of the favourites for victory and would be the first world champion since Eddy Merckx in 1975 to win the race in the rainbow bands. 2008 winner Cancellara will start with a strong team backing his final bid for victory, including Niccolò Bonifazio, fifth at last year's race.

Kristoff and Matthews, second and third in 2015, will start the race with favourite status as both riders have enjoyed winning starts to the season. Kristoff will be missing Luca Paolini but will Michael Morkov and Jacopo Guarnieri. Matthews' bid to become the third Australian to win Milan-San Remo is boosted by an Orica-GreenEdge squad of Luka Mezgec, Chris Juul Jensen and Sam Bewley with Michael Albasini as a wildcard.

BMC's Belgian duo of Greg Van Avermaet and Philippe Gilbert, Etixx-QuickStep's Fernando Gaviria, Cofidis' Nacer Bouhanni and Astana's Vincenzo Nibali add further depth to field of starters.

20 teams and the main names as of March 14:

WorldTour teams:
AG2R La Mondiale: Jan Bakelants
Astana Pro Team: Vincenzo Nibali, Alexey Lutsenko
BMC Racing Team: Greg Van Avermaet, Philippe Gilbert
Cannondale Pro Cycling: Ramunas Navardauskas, Matti Breschel
Dimension Data: Mark Cavendish, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg
Etixx-Quick-Step: Tom Boonen, Fernando Gaviria Rendon, Zdenek Stybar
FDJ: Arnaud Démare
IAM Cycling: Heinrich Haussler, Leigh Howard
Lampre-Merida: Diego Ulissi, Davide Cimolai, Rui Costa
Lotto Soudal: Tony Gallopin, Jurgen Roelandts
Movistar Team: JJ Lobato,
Orica-GreenEdge: Michael Matthews, Michael Albasini
Team Giant-Alpecin: Tom Dumoulin, Zico Waeytens
Team Katusha: Alexander Kristoff
Team LottoNl-Jumbo: Sep Vanmarcke, Moreno Hofland
Team Sky: Geraint Thomas, Michal Kwiatkowski, Ben Swift, Elia Viviani
Tinkoff Team: Peter Sagan
Trek-Segafredo: Fabian Cancellara, Niccolò Bonifazio

Pro-Continental teams:
Androni Giocattoli–Sidermec:
Bardiani–CSF: Stefano Pirazzi
Bora–Argon 18: Sam Bennett
CCC–Sprandi–Polkowice: Simone Ponzi
Cofidis: Nacer Bouhanni
Southeast–Venezuela: Filippo Pozzato
Team Novo Nordisk: Javier Megias Leal

Provisional starters