Defending champion: Arnaud Demare (FDJ)

Arnaud Demare kicked off last spring with the biggest win of his career, and the Frenchman has started this season in good form too.

The 25-year-old bagged two stages wins at the Etoile de Besseges, finished in the top ten at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and won the rain- and wind-battered first stage of this year’s Paris-Nice.

He was only an outside contender for last year’s race, but after finishing the season with a runners-up spot at Paris-Tours – less than a week after winning Binche-Chimay-Binche – he is at the forefront of the leading contenders this time out.

Nevertheless, while he is a man for the faster, flatter Classics, Demare was outsprinted in three other bunch gallops at Paris-Nice.

You have to expect him to finish at the sharp end again this year, but the magic of Milan-San Remo is that it can be anybody’s race once it gets to the Via Roma.

Fernando Gaviria (QuickStep Floors)

Fernando Gaviria’s maiden Milan-San Remo ended in tears 12 months ago, when the Colombian crashed with 500m to go, just as he was perfectly placed to sprint to victory.

Aged just 22, Gaviria has already proved he has a big future in the pro peloton, with four victories to his name already this season to take him to 15 pro wins in his career.

Gaviria threw down the gauntlet at Tirreno-Adriatico, claiming victory on the undulating, but sprint-friendly, sixth stage in what appeared to be a perfect warm up for Saturday’s race.

And having finished the 2016 season by winning at Paris-Tours, Gaviria has already proved he is a rider with serious potential for these type of races.

A momentary lapse in concentration proved critical to his hopes of a debut win at Milan-San Remo, but Gaviria won’t make that mistake again.

Add to that the fact he will be backed by Classics legends Tom Boonen and Philippe Gilbert, and the powerful engines of Matteo Trentin, Julian Alaphilippe and Julien Vermote, and you can see why he is being touted as favourite this time out.

John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo)

While Arnaud Demare rolls out as defending champion on Saturday, he is not the only rider on the startlist to have won on his last Milan-San Remo appearance.

John Degenkolb missed last year’s race – in fact he missed the entire Spring Classics campaign – after being one of the riders involved in a head-on collision with a car at the Giant-Alpecin training camp last summer.

It meant he was unable to ride out to defend the two Monuments he won in 2015 – Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix – and, now with a new team, leaves him plenty to prove on Saturday.

Degenkolb has one win to his name this year, at the Dubai Tour, showing his strength and stamina on a day in which desert storms sapped the reserves of his sprinting rivals.

Degenkolb’s move to Trek-Segafredo will see him fill the void left at the team by Fabian Cancellara’s retirement, but the 28-year-old German has already proved he can be a serious contender at the Spring Classics.

Ben Swift (UAE Team Emirates)

On the topic of points to prove… Ben Swift’s runners-up spot at last year’s Milan-San Remo – following third place two years ago – was another reminder of the Team Sky man’s as-yet unfulfilled potential.

A winter switch to UAE Team Emirates followed, and while his 2017 season has failed to ignite he has already marked Milan-San Remo as his early-season target.

Swift called second place ‘the worst place to finish’ after last year’s Milan-San Remo, and yet there are plenty of world-class riders who have never and will never get to even experience that.

Swift’s performances in 2014 and 2016 were a reminder of his capabilities on the punchier sprint days and Milan-San Remo packs the biggest punch of them all.

Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data)

An illness has disrupted the start of Mark Cavendish’s 2017 season, which has also been beset by mechanical misfortune on the road too, leaving him with just the one victory so far.

He has downplayed his chances at Milan-San Remo and yet, having completed all the road stages at Tirreno-Adriatico, he has got his full preparation under his belt for Saturday’s race.

He is one of three Brits in the Dimension Data line-up, alongside Scott Thwaites and Steve Cummings, and he and Cummings will share the team leadership with Edvald Boasson Hagen.

Boasson Hagen is also yet to pull up trees this season, but the Norwegian champion is definitely a man with the characteristics to win on the Via Roma.

Dimension Data have a strong squad for Milan-San Remo and you can certainly expect to see them well-represented at the front of the bunch when it matters.

Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis)

Fiery Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni has come into form at just the right moment, beating British champion Adam Blythe to win the cobbled Danilith-Nokere Koerse race just three days out from Milan-San Remo.

Bouhanni’s first win of the season has marked him as a contender to improve on his two top-ten finishes from the last two years at Milan-San Remo.

The Frenchman simply ran out of legs for the sprint in last year’s race, meaning he could do nothing to respond to compatriot, former team-mate and fierce rival Arnaud Demare’s acceleration.

Still only 26, Bouhanni will be keen to reaffirm his status as France’s number one sprinter – and dethroning Demare on the Via Roma will certainly go some way to doing that.

Elsewhere, former podium finisher Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) heads his team’s strong line-up after picking up four top-ten finishes at Paris-Nice.

Caleb Ewan (Orica-Scott) abandoned Tirreno-Adriatico after crashing on stage two, but he remains on Orica-Scott’s provisional line-up, alongside former winner Simon Gerrans.

Ewan has five wins to his name this season, which have earmarked him as a serious sprint contender.

Team Sky – who have two Brits in their provisional line-up in Ian Stannard and Luke Rowe – are led by Italian sprinter Elia Viviani, with 23-year-old Danny van Poppel for support.

Rowe and Stannard are two of six Brits set for the startline, alongside Cavendish, Cummings and Milan-San Remo debutant Thwaites for Dimension Data and Swift for UAE Team Emirates.

Two Irish riders – Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) and debutant Stephen Clancy (Team Novo Nordisk) – are also expected to start on Saturday.