| The 1957 Milan-San Remo |
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| Date:
Tuesday 19 March
1957
Starters: 223 Classified: 147 Distance: 282 km in 6h 55' 51" Average speed: 40.754 km/hour (New record) Weather conditions: Fresh in the morning changing to good conditions later Twenty teams participated along with 33 individual riders Carpano - Coppi (Alfred De Bruyne) Legnano (Giorgio Albani, Ercole Baldini) Bottecchia - Gripo (Rino Benedetti) Asborno (Guido Messina) St. Raphael - Geminiani (Gilbert Bauvin, Brian Robinson) BIF (Pasquale Fornara) Bianchi (André Darrigade, Jacques Anquetil) Chlorodont (Gaston Nencini) San Pellegrino (Germano Barale) Atala (Bruno Monti) Lygie (Germano Padoan) Helyett - Potin (Seamus Elliot) Essor - Leroux (Jean Robic, Joseph Groussard) G.S Faema - Guerra (Rik Van Looy, Germain Derycke, Hugo Koblet, Bobet - BP (Louis Bobet, Jean Bobet) Mercier - BP (Julien Schepens, René Privat) Fichtel & Sachs (Paul Maue) Peugeot - BP (Rik Van Steenbergen, Raymond Impanis, Joseph Planckaert, Alberic Schotte) Torpado (Cleto Maule) Girardengo - ERG (Willy Lauwers, Loretto Petrucci) Ignis (Miguel Poblet) Groene Leeuw (Lucien Mathys) Absent from the start line was Fausto Coppi who had crashed in a circuit race in Sardinia prior to Sassari - Cagliari when his rear wheel slipped in a sprint. He fractured his left neck of femur.  Coppi crash in the Sassari circuit race
(1st March 1957) - Image ©
Telefoto / Stampa Sera
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The 1957 Milano - Sanremo Map
Image © Stampa Sera
(18-19 March 1957) |
| The 48th Sanremo was won by Miguel Poblet. Poblet was born on March 18 1928 at Moncada y Reixach in the northern suburbs of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. His career lasted from 1944 to 1962 during which he had over 200 professional victories and also became the first Spanish rider to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. Poblet had been riding with the Faema team, led by Rik Van Looy, but had left early in 1957 after being told he would not be riding the Milan-San Remo. He signed for the Italian squad Ignis and promptly won the Milano-Torino race. Miguel prepared meticulously for Milan-San Remo, designing a training course in Catalonia similar to the Italian classic parcours with a big climb similar to the Turchino Pass followed by a series of smaller hills. The training paid off when Poblet produced an electrifying sprint on the via Roma to become the first man from Spain to win "La Primavera". He finished second in 1958 behind Van Looy and then won again in 1959 after breaking away from the bunch with 400 metres to go. | |
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| Above left - The riders leave the Castello
Sforzesco and make their way to the official start area. Above
right
-
0941
hours,
four
minutes
earlier than planned, the Director of
La Gazzetta
dello Sport Giuseppe Ambrosini sends them away. World
Champion and winner in 1954 Rik Van Steenbergen can be seen 4th from
the right |
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| 1017 hours - After 28 km of the race
covered a group of fifteen escape - they were (pictured right) Barone,
Chausabel, Hassenforder, Ciolli, Uliana, Strehler, Fabbri, Couvreur,
Christian, Piscaglia, Lamera, Fantini, Padoan, Cassano and Faggin. At
this stage they had a lead of 1'58" over the gruppo. 1125 hours - Km 76 - The fifteen fugitives remained in front but had a chase group containing Conterno, Barducci, Modena, Senn, Giusti and Gervasoni only 7 seconds behind with the gruppo at 7'10". 1156 hours - Km 94.1 - At Novi Ligure Colombo Cassano and his 14 companions still lead. The six man chase group had slipped back to 6'20" with the peloton 8'02" in arrears. |
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| 1234 hours at Ovada- The courageous fifteen man break have a lead of 9 minutes as they start the climb of the Passo del Turchino. The Swiss rider René Strehler is on the front. | 1313 hours - Km 142.8 - The top of
the Turchino. Strehler is first followed by Christian and Hassenforder. |
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| The first chase group go over the top of the Turchino lead by Angelo Conterno. Conterno is famous for becoming the first Italian to win La Vuelta a España (1956). | 1415 hours - Km 184.7 - The feed
station at Savona which was organised by the Nestlé company. Leading the fugitives
through Savona is Emilio
Ciolli followed by Strehler and Hassenforder. Their advantage has been
cut to 5' 9" as Pintarelli, Dall'Agata and Ferlenghi went off the front
of the main bunch. At 5' 15" were Brandolini, 5' 25" Scudellaro and at
5' 55" the peloton. |
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1528 hours - Km 235 - The French rider Nicolas Barone (left) attacked from the lead group and going through Allasio he was 1'15" in front of Fantini, Strehler, Christian and the rest of the escape group. The peloton was closing quickly and now had a deficit of only 2'15". Barone would go over the climbs of the Capo Mele and Capo Cervo on his own. |
1602 hours - Km 253.6 - Capo Berta, the final climb of the day, saw Barone still in front. Behind him however his fellow escapees had been caught. A five man group containing Miguel Poblet, Brian Robinson, Julien Schepens, Joseph Plankaert and the previous years winner Alfred De Bruyne had formed on the Capo Berta (right). This was to be the decisive moment of the 1957 Sanremo as Poblet rode hard on the front up the Capo Berta in pursuit of the Frenchman. At Imperia Barone had a one minute lead but now chose to wait for the Poblet group to catch him. |
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| The final selection
- Poblet leads De Bruyne, Robinson, Schepens, Plankaert and an
exhausted Barone bringing up the rear |
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| Miguel Poblet wins the
1957 Milan-San Remo from Alfred De Bruyne and Brian Robinson. Robinson
became the first British rider on the podium at San Remo |
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| Poblet is surrounded by the eager spectators |
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