Sean Kelly was 36 when he won Milan-San Remo in 1992. It was his 9th monument, he’d won the last of the previous season, Il Lombardia, and he looked back to full strength after breaking his collarbone in March ‘91. It looked like he would go on forever, but this was his last big win.
Moreno Argentin of Italy was the race favourite; he’d won seven classics and a world title in short order but had never won Milan-San Remo. With three stage wins in Tirreno-Adriatico right before, Argentin’s form was everything it should be and his Ariostea team was committed to helping him.
They set the pace from the Cipressa climb to the foot of the Poggio, delivering their leader perfectly for the finale. Eric Boyer of France attacked at the foot of the climb, but Ariostea dragged him back. Then Argentin launched his attack and crossed the Poggio well ahead. It’s hard to catch a lone rider on the descent, especially one as skilful as Argentin. The race looked won, except Sean Kelly didn’t think so.
He flew down the other side, measuring each corner with hair’s breadth precision to close on Argentin while his gap to the rest remained the same. Kelly finally made contact at the bottom of the twisting descent, with three kilometres to go.
Argentin was shocked, but he was too good and too experienced to be fazed. Anyway, Kelly was at the end of his career, so the Italian’s confidence must have been high. With the peloton closing quickly Argentin went for it, leading out the sprint, but Kelly was still fast and he cruised right by. It was the Irishman’s second Milan-San Remo, a race Argentin was never destined to win.
Interviewing Sean years later, Chris Sidwells asked him about the descent and how he went down so fast. “You don’t think about it. You don’t think about the hospital on a descent, you just get down there as fast as you can. I used every bit of the road, and nearly crashed twice, but I kept going,” he said.
