At the start there will be all the best of the lot: the sprinters, the puncheurs and the finisseurs.
Because the Milano-Sanremo is like a round of roulette: anyone can always win but anyone who manages to win is always a champion.
And the 112th edition of the Classicissima, scheduled for Saturday without the public frame at the finish line in via Roma due to the ordinance of the mayor Biancheri, will be no different, with a traditional canvas.
The sprinters will try to run away on the Poggio, someone will try to surprise in the dive towards the Aurelia, the sprinters - without victories for five years - will try to withstand the impact and shoot their only cartridge in the final meters.
The favorites however are the three recent rulers of online racing.
Wout van Aert, reigning champion, chases the encore after having shown the Tirreno-Adriatico a full and round leg (he finished second, behind the elusive Pogacar);
Julian Alaphilippe, winner in 2019, wants to forget the joke at last year's photo finish;
Mathieu van der Poel, fresh winner of the Strade Bianche and two stages of the Corsa dei Due Mari, dreams of definitive consecration, re-entering that narrow group of athletes capable of celebrating on the Riviera and in Flanders.
But there will be outsiders: Sagan remains a three-time world champion and twice betrayed a few meters from the Ligurian finish line;
Schachmann comes from the success at the Paris-Nice;
Kwiatkowski is as strong a runner as he is smart.
The sprinters, on the other hand, are hoping for a full-line finish with Ewan, Bennett, Bouhanni and Demare ready to eat the arrival of Via Roma at more than 70 kilometers per hour.
And the Italians?
Nibali promises a show on the Poggio, Ganna can surprise, Viviani and Nizzolo are waiting for the sprint.
Traditional cloth, traditional date, more or less traditional route.
After the unicum of 2020 - with an edition distorted by Covid, run on 8 August and brought to Piedmont due to the protests of the mayors of the province of Savona - we return to coast the Ligurian Sea along the Aurelia.
The only modification is the cut of the Turchino, impassable due to a landslide, and replaced by the Colle di Giovo, with the subsequent descent towards Albisola and then turn towards the canonical three Capi (Mele, Cervo, Berta), the Cipressa and the decisive Poggio .
It will be a longer race: 299 kilometers of asphalt, fatigue and sweat.
However, the warmth of the audience will be missing upon arrival.