Dancelli remembered for his long distance solo to win Milan - San Remo

 

ITALY’S Michele Dancelli, star of the Sixties and Seventies, passed away on December 18. He was 83. Dancelli is especially remembered for his winning triumph in the 1970 Milan - San Remo Spring Classic with an outstanding 70 –kilometre solo break!

This was a massive success for Italian fans, for it had been 18 years since an Italian had won the home opening Classic of the season.

My previous blog about that very race speculated as to whether Tadej Pogacar, third last year, could win the next edition with his trademark lone break. Regrettably I had missed the Dancelli story, his famous solo victory in the race known as the sprinters classic.

It is thanks to a friend of mine, Al, a one-time training partner back in the 70s who, moved to examine the results more thoroughly, gave me that gem.

For I well recall Dancelli who was from my era, an exciting rider who regularly made the headlines.

Clearly, my story lacked this vital and epic performance which Pogacar will surely want to emulate.

Dancelli was riding for Molteni, the team of the great Eddy Merckx.

This was the era of Merckx, unsurpassed as the greatest rider of all time and of Gimondi, another Italian star and, like Merckx, a grand tour winner.

Dancelli may not have achieved their heights, but he had a Stella record. He was twice Italian road champion, 11 times a Giro stage winner and wearer of the Maglia Rosa for 14 days.

He was both a Tour rider and a single-day classic star, winning the 1966 Fleche – Wallonne and 1968 Paris – Luxembourg, and taking many podium places in other major single-day races.

He had panache, tenacity, ambition. A Dancelli attack demanded attention! He would win from breakaways, on climbs, on descents.

When he attacked it was either get him back or go with him.

In that historic 1970 Milan San Remo, no one else could.

But it all came to a premature end in 1971 when he broke his femur in Tirreno Adriatico and was unable to perform at the same level again.

RIP Michele Dancelli.

 

Place your bets: Pogacar to win both Milan - San Remo and Paris-Roubaix in 2026

 

Can Pogacar at last score in Milan – San Remo and in Paris – Roubaix next year?

Why not?  It’s not yet 2026 and already we are asking can the star of the new Millennium, Tadej Pogacar the 27-year-old Slovenian, at last win the  two Monuments missing from his impressive palmares.

They are the spring classic Milan – San Remo in March and the cobbled Hell of the North, the Paris-Roubaix, in April.

We know he’s targeting both and needs to be at his best. Let’s focus on his first challenge, the season-opener, the longest classic of them all at some 300 kilometres, Milan – San Remo which he will start for the sixth time. He has twice finished third.

Clearly Pogacar is wary of his main rivals, double winner in San Remo Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert, winner in 2020; not to mention the reigning Olympic road and time trial champion Remco Evenpoele.

The question is, can he win it in his trade mark fashion, deny the sprinters with a long lone break no one else can match?

His most recent audacious triumphs have included defending his world road race title in Rwanda last September, going solo 66km out from the finish.

And the next month he won his fifth consecutive Tour of Lombardia, the closing classic of the season, with an equally astonishing lone break of 50 kilometres.

We know he can sprint. Here’s a couple. On the opening stage of the Criterium du Dauphine this year he outsprinted Jonas Vingegaard and Mathieus Van de Poel. On stage 4 of the Tour de France in Rouen this year, he outsprinted Van der Poel to chalk up his 100^th victory.

 

World Road Race Champion Tadje Pogacar earlier this year.

But the lone attack seems to have become his modus operandi.

The question is can this serve him in Milan - San Remo? 

I can find no record of anyone doing so from a long way out.  For Milan – San Remo is known as the sprinters classic, with a super group at the head of the race going full pelt, pulling back the usual earlier breakaway of hopefuls who sometimes stay clear for a long while.

The race favours those who have the legs to get clear on the infamous final climb of the Poggio,  five kilometres from the end, or on rare occasions, by anyone mad enough to attack on the twisting descent which bottoms out in San Remo about 2km from the line. There is often only seconds separating the first few at the finish.

But last March, the race winning trio formed on the Cipressa, some 22 kilometres from the finish.

The race starts from Milan in the industrial heart of Northern Italy to finish in the fashionable seaside resort of San Remo on the Italian Riviera.

From the start, field heads south west over the plains of Lombardy and Piedmont, via the cities of Pavia, Voghera, Tortona, Novi Ligure and Ovada.

At Liguria, the riders tackle their first hurdle of the day, the Turchino Pass after 140 kilometres.

They are at almost half distance here and after the descent soon reach the spectacular Ligurian Coast, which they will hug all the way to Remo passing through many seaside resorts, the blue sea to t heir left. They must tackle three short climbs, the Capo Mele, Capo Cervo and Capo Berta in San Lorenzo al Mare. Now the course loops inland towards what is often the first big shakedown, the climb of the Cipressa with a summit 22 kilometres from the finish.

The peloton is usually much reduced by this point, but still a sizeable group rejoins the coast road, now moving at a fair lick and facing one last hurdle, the Poggio, 5.4km from the line.

They hit this slope and all hell breaks loose, attack after attack.

What are the odds of Pogacar - who has attacked up here before – doing so again and this time getting clear? Can he land this elusive victory this time?

Let us take a look at his five previous attempts; 12^th in 2020; 5^th in 2022; 4^th in 2023; 3^rd in both 2024 and 2025.

Take a look at the main players in each of those finishes.

The 2020 edition was won in a close sprint by Wout Van Aert from Julian Alaphilippe both in the same time – 7 hours, 16 minutes nine seconds.

Breathing down their necks at two seconds, Michael Matthews took third outsprinting Peter Sagan and a large groups including Pogacar placed 12^th.

The 2022 edition taken won by Matej Mohorič, executing a brilliant solo attack on the descent of the Poggio to finish two seconds clear of Anthony Turgis; Van der Pol was third with Pogacar 5^th, from a group of seven.

2023 Van per Poel won alone, 15 seconds ahead of   Filippo Ganna second with Van Aert third and Pogacar fourth, all in the same time.

In 2024 it came down to another group sprint all given the same time , with Jasper Philipsen first from Matthews with Pogacar third.

2025 Van der Poel won for the second time, beating Ganna.  Pogacar was third again in a sprint finish after the trio had escaped the peloton on the Cipressa 22 kilometres out.  They finished 43 seconds ahead of the next group led in by Michael Matthews.

It was notable that it was Pogacar who started that move on the Cipressa, rocketing ahead of the group from which only Van der Poel and Ganna were able to bridge the widening the gap on the fastest ever ascent of the climb.

Cue for 2026!