Race distance - 290.5 km
Started - 174
Finished - 72
Weather conditions - Fine
Average speed - 37.284 km/h
The 1948 Milan-San Remo was the inaugural race of a new season long competition the Challenge Desgrange-Colombo. It was named after Henri Desgrange and Emilio Colombo (original organisers of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia) and was run by the newspapers L'Équipe, La Gazzetta dello Sport, Het Nieuwsblad-Sportwereld and Les Sports.
Riders' performances in the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, La Flèche Wallonne, Paris-Brussels, Paris-Tours and the Tour of Lombardy all counted towards the competition. The Tour of Switzerland was added in 1949, the Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 1951, and the Vuelta a España was included in 1958. The Challenge Desgrange-Colombo ran from 1948 until 1958. The first winner in 1948 was the Belgian rider Briek Schotte.
The 1948 edition of La Classicissima was won by Fausto Coppi riding for the Bianchi team. A two man break went away on the climb of the Turchino Pass. It was caught on the descent by Coppi and eleven others. At Alassio they were down to four with Fausto Coppi making his move alone on the Capo Mele. He arrived in San Remo over five minutes ahead of his nearest rivals.
Right: The start of the 1948 Milan-San Remo. The field included a record number of 50 non-Italian riders who were eager to compete in the new season-long competition.
