The streets of northwest Italy take center stage once more this weekend as the world's best riders take on the 116th edition of the iconic Milan-San Remo in the first of this season's spring classics.

The first Monument of the season and one of the most unusual, La Classicissima di Primavera is a grueling 289km, the first 264km of which serve as a sort of stand-off, a prolonged lactic acid-builder ...