11 things you should know about the 2016 Milan-San Remo

The Milan-San Remo is the longest one-day bike race on the professional cycling calendar. Eddy Merckx, Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi have won multiple editions. The 107th edition of La Classicissima takes place on Saturday.

Milan-San Remo is the first Monument of the season. It signals the start of Spring Classics. After this race, cycling world will turn its attention to Belgium and France for the cobbled classics.

The Milan-San Remo is being held on Saturday this year for the first time since 2012. It used to be held in the Saturday, but for three years it's been held for Sunday. The race director Mauro Vegni wants to attract more attention to the race.

the last time the race was on a Saturday, Simon Gerrans won it.

The route for Milan-San Remo is unchanged from last year. The overall distance has been shortened by 2 km but the route is still a still impressive 291 km. Passo del Turchino peaks after 142.2 km, but it's not a major obstacle.

The race starts with 50 km to go. The Cipressa (5.6 km at 4.1%) is probably the toughest of the climbs on course. There are five short climbs in the final approach to San Remo. The Poggio is a 3.7 km ascent that tops out just 4 km from the finish line. It's a technical descent with a high average gradient.

The Milan-San Remo is a sprint classic. The climbs are not hard enough to shed the best sprinters. For puncheurs and opportunistic riders to win the race they will have to get away on the Cipressa or Poggio stage.

There are 25 teams on the startlist and 200 riders. Milan-San Remo will feature all 18 ProTeams. The remaining seven slots are filled by wildcard Pro Continental teams.

Alexander Kristoff is the favourite for Milan-San Remo. He won the race in 2014 and was second to John Degenkolb last year. Peter Sagan has been in good form since the season began. Michael Matthews is on the cusp of Monument success. Fabian Cancellara won Milan in 2008. He is in his final year as a pro. His team has a lot of firepower. It will give him the best chance of winning this race. The winner will be announced on Saturday.   The winner of Milan will take part in the Giro d'Italia.

Mark Cavendish is a past winner of the race. MTN-Qhubeka won the 2013 edition with Gerald Ciolek. Edvald Boasson Hagen is in good form and has three wins in 2016.

There are many riders that could be in contention at Milan-San Remo. Nacer Bouhanni has won the race twice this year. Australia's Leigh Howard won a bunch kick at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and won Clasica de Almeria in February. Ben Swift, Elia Viviani, Tom Boonen, Vincenzo Nibali, Sam Bennett, Diego Ulissi, Jens Debusschere and Fernando Gaviria are other riders to watch.

The weather forecast for Milan-San Remo looks promising. There will be around 15 degrees of temperature for Saturday's race.

The Milan-San Remo one-day race is being broadcast live around the world. Australian fans can catch the race live on SBS TV from 12:30am to 3am on Sunday morning.

The 2016 Milan-San Remo is taking place on March 31.