The finish was disrupted by a crash involving Fernando Gaviria (Etixx–Quick-Step), causing several riders to take avoiding action, ruling them out of contention.

Generally considered a sprinters' classic, the race ran from the Via della Chiesa Rossa in Milan to the traditional finish on San Remo's Via Roma.

Across the road, the riders also had to tackle the 35 km (22 mi) climb of the Passo dello Turchino, although it was not considered to be a key point in the race.

[13] Fabian Cancellara (Trek–Segafredo) was also rated highly in what would be his final appearance in the race, as he was a former winner and had shown strong form, winning Strade Bianche earlier in the season.

[14] World Champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) was also named as a race favourite, as he had shown good form, albeit still lacking a win in 2016.

[17] After the race started in Milan, a breakaway got clear after 14 km (8.7 mi) of racing, including Gediminas Bagdonas (AG2R La Mondiale), Serghei Țvetcov (Androni Giocattoli–Sidermec), Mirco Maestri (Bardiani–CSF), Jan Bárta (Bora–Argon 18), Adrian Kurek (CCC–Sprandi–Polkowice), Roger Kluge (IAM Cycling), Matteo Bono (Lampre–Merida), Samuele Conti (Southeast–Venezuela), Maarten Tjallingii (LottoNL–Jumbo), Andrea Peron (Team Novo Nordisk) and Marco Coledan (Trek–Segafredo).

At the Capo Berta, the lead of the front group was around a minute, while Marco Haller (Team Katusha) crashed on the following descent, dropping out of the main field.

Michael Matthews and Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky) were the most prominent riders to go down, but both managed to get back into the field even with a growing pace set at the front.

Team Katusha set the pace up the final climb, but Michał Kwiatkowski broke clear 6 km (3.7 mi) from the finish.

Vincenzo Nibali chased after him on the descent and the group of favourites came back together at the run-in to the finish, after Fabian Cancellara had put in an attack, marked by Matteo Trentin (Etixx–Quick-Step).

Shortly before the line, a touch of wheels led to a crash by Fernando Gaviria (Etixx–Quick-Step), which caused several riders to lose momentum, including Peter Sagan.

In the following mass sprint, Arnaud Démare came out on top and won his first ever cycling monument, ahead of Ben Swift and Jürgen Roelandts (Lotto–Soudal).

Cancellara, who was riding the event for the last time before retirement at the end of the 2016 season, was held up in Gaviria's crash after having stayed in the leading group.

"[23] One day after the race, both Matteo Tosatto (Tinkoff) and Eros Capecchi (Astana) accused Démare of having used the tow of his teamcar to rejoin the pack after his crash before the Cipressa climb.