The first was Francesco Moser. The year was 1984 and the Trentino rider, fresh from the Hour record, showed up at the start of the Milan-Sanremo without even a stage race in his legs and with only one day of competition, the Milan-Turin which anticipated the “World Championship of spring” of 14 days. It seemed impossible to think of winning a 300 km classic without having contested at least one stage race, but instead Francesco Moser succeeded and was a precursor in this too. Just yesterday Mathieu Van der Poel announced his program which includes participation in all the spring classics with the seasonal debut at Milan-Sanremo on Saturday 16 March. He did the same in 2022 too and how did it go? He came third, beaten by Mohoric and Turgis. Today’s great champions are like this, they go to races not to train but to win. On February 10, Remco Evenepoel made his debut by winning the Figueira Champion Classic in Portugal, escaping everything only for 50 km, then won the Volta Algarve, a five-day stage race. Yesterday Jonas Vingegaard, the winner of the last two Tours de France, started the Gran Camiño, a Spanish stage race, and how did it go?