Tom Simpson always targeted his biggest victories; he planned for them and was brilliant in executing them. For 1964 he picked Milan-San Remo and won, this is how he did it…
Tom was fit early; he’d spent the winter riding six-day races and was often on the road all day at the Peugeot team Riviera training camp. He finished 2nd in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne then used Paris-Nice as final preparation. By March 19th, the traditional St Joseph’s Day date for Milan-San Remo, he was flying.
The race had a massive field, 230 starters. According to Barry Hoban, having his first experience of La Primavera; “There were so many riders in the early stages you couldn’t fall off, there was no space to fall off in; you just bounced between the riders next to you.”
Turchino Pass thinned out the field, but still a big peloton hit the coast and the first of several headland climbs, the Capo Berta. Simpson knew it was time to go and he attacked. Only Raymond Poulidor, Willy Bocklant and Vincenzo Meco could follow.
They quickly built a lead, and with Poulidor going well Tom thought it might be the winning move. Bocklant and Meco hadn’t been able to contribute so Tom and Raymond knocked it back a bit to let them help.
It was a good decision, Bocklant’s strong Flandria team stopped chasing, confident their man would win the sprint. The group settled down and stayed together until the final climb, the Poggio di San Remo.
Poulidor accelerated at the bottom and Bocklant and Meco lost contact. It was a two-horse race. Poulidor went again, a more serious attack, a gap opened then Tom slowly closed it.
Poulidor, who’d won the race in 1961 and whose grandson Mathieu van der Poel would win it twice, attacked 4 more times. Every time Simpson closed him down. They crossed the summit together. It would be a sprint on the Via Roma in San Remo, and Simpson was by far the faster sprinter.
And so it proved, Tom won Milan-San Remo with a record average speed of 27.1 mph, which stood for many years and wouldn’t look shabby today.
You can read all about his short but fabulous career, as told by the people who knew him best, in our book; Cycling Legends 01: Tom Simpson. Find out more here.
