The 2018 Milan–San Remo (known as Milano-Sanremo presented by NAMEDSPORT> for sponsorship reasons[1]) was a road cycling one-day race that took place on 17 March 2018 in Italy.

[2][3] The race was won by Vincenzo Nibali from the Bahrain–Merida team, becoming the first Italian rider since Filippo Pozzato in 2006 to win La Classicissima.

Nibali had attacked on the Poggio di San Remo, and managed to hold off the sprinters in the closing stages to seal victory.

[7] The 2018 route was initially scheduled to be 291 km (181 mi) long, running from the Via della Chiesa Rossa in Milan to the traditional finish on San Remo's Via Roma.

Also on the route, the riders also had to tackle the 35 km (22 mi) climb of the Passo dello Turchino,[8] although it was not considered to be a key point in the race.

While Kwiatkowski and Alaphilippe were considered to have to rely on a breakaway on one of the final climbs, several sprinters were counted among the favourites if a larger group reached the finish line together.

[9] 2014 winner Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) was among them, as was Arnaud Démare (Groupama–FDJ), who won the race in 2016, but had to withdraw from Paris–Nice due to a cold.

[9] Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb), usually also a favourite, was not given a strong chance due to a fractured shoulder,[11] suffered three weeks prior at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

His teammate Philippe Gilbert, who had finished on the podium of Milan–San Remo twice before, aimed at a victory to get closer to his goal of winning all five "monument races" of cycling.

An early breakaway formed, consisting of Mirco Maestri and Lorenzo Rota (both Bardiani–CSF), Evgeny Kobernyak (Gazprom–RusVelo), Guy Sagiv and Dennis van Winden (both Israel Cycling Academy), Sho Hatsuyama (Nippo–Vini Fantini–Europa Ovini), Charles Planet (Team Novo Nordisk), Matteo Bono (UAE Team Emirates) and Jacopo Mosca (Wilier Triestina–Selle Italia).

At the Cappo Berta, with 39 km (24 mi) left, the lead had decreased further to half a minute, while the high tempo in the field distanced Marcel Kittel.

Mark Cavendish (Team Dimension Data) had to retire after a spectacular accident in which he hit a traffic bollard and crashed onto the road.

[20] André Greipel, who suffered two crashes in the last 4 km (2.5 mi) of the race, was forced to miss the rest of the spring classics season due to a broken collarbone.