Welcome to Eurosport-Yahoo!'s coverage of the first genuine classic of the season, Milan - San Remo!

The quarter's lead seems to have levelled out at a steady 13 minutes now. The peloton are keeping them on a relatively tight leash by the standards of this race.

HAUSSLER: Two years ago both Haussler and Hushovd were at Cervelo, and Haussler came within a hair's breadth of winning this race. Though originally acting as a lead-out man for Hushovd, Haussler was simply too quick for the Norwegian, and went sprinting clear of the peloton with 250 metres to go, only to be caught by Mark Cavendish in a photo-finish. He has talked up his chances again this year, though must perhaps use the Poggio if he's to claim his first win here.

FARRAR: Let's take a look at some of the favourites for today's race, starting with the American Tyler Farrar. The 26-year-old is in fine form, with four victories to his name already this season. His problem could well be the fact that his Garmin team have three leaders (the others being Heinrich Haussler and Thor Hushovd), though Farrar doesn't see this as a problem. "It just means we have more chances of winning," he declared optimistically.

13 minutes is the latest split between the four leaders and the main bunch.

ANSWER: 2006 was the last time that we had an all-Italian podium (Pozzato, Petacchi, Paolini), and before that it was 2003 (Bettini, Celestino, Paolini).

A reminder of the composition of our lead group: Nico Sijmens (Cofidis), Alessandro de Marchi (Androni-Giocatolli), Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha) and Takashi Miyazawa (Farnese-Vini) are the men out in front.

One stat that struck me as particularly impressive this morning is that on no fewer than 34 occasions, Italy has taken a 1-2-3 in this race. Can you name the last time this happened? A clue: it has happened twice in the last ten years.

It was a pretty quick first hour of racing, the peloton covered a very respectable 47 kilometres.

Here's the answer to that little tickler earlier. The last ten editions of this race were won by: 2001: Erik Zabel, 2002: Mario Cipollini, 2003: Paolo Bettini, 2004: Oscar Freire, 2005: Alessandro Petacchi, 2006: Filippo Pozzato, 2007: Oscar Freire, 2008: Fabian Cancellara, 2009: Mark Cavendish, 2010: Oscar Freire.

PARCOURS: After the three small hills of the Capo Mele, Capo Cervo and Capo Berta come the two real key hills of the race - the Cipressa and the Poggio. The Cipressa presents a chance for the classics specialists who like to go from a long way out to put the sprinters into difficulty, though as Fabian Cancellara proved in 2008, the Poggio is perhaps a better option, as its slightly closer to home.

NO GOOGLING ALLOWED - but can you name the winner of each of the last ten editions of this race? Post your answers below!

As is the case with most big races around the world, Eddy Merckx holds the record here for the most victories. "The Cannibal" won here a mind-boggling seven times between 1966 and 1976. You have to go way back to before the second world war to find anyone who came anywhere close to that figure. Costante Girardengo managed to take victory here six times between 1918 and 1929.

Our leaders have extended their advantage to 9'00". It sounds a lot, but bear in mind that a trio last year built a lead that grew to over 20 minutes, and were still caught with ease.

PARCOURS: After the Passo del Turchino comes La Manie, at 200 kilometres. The climb is considerably shorter than the Turchino, at a shade over five kilometres, though it's also far steeper, and is the moment when those out of form begin to feel some pain.

The quartet out front have now extended their lead over the peloton to a 4'20".

PARCOURS: Just taking a bit of a closer look at the race route, the Turchino is the first real difficulty of the day, and by quite some way the longest climb of the day, at over 20 kilometres, and with its famous tunnel at the exit. At 150 kilometres from the finish, it certainly won't play a decisive role today, though way back between 1908 and 1946 whoever went over the Turchino first went on to win the race an average of one year in every three.

A group of four riders have broken clear of the main bunch. The Dutchman Nico Sijmens (Cofidis), Italy's Alessandro de Marchi (Androni-Giocatolli), Russia's Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha) and Japan's Takashi Miyazawa (Farnese-Vini) have opened up a gap of a minute.

25 teams took the start this morning, each made up of eight riders (with the exception of Cofidis and Ag2r - who have brought seven). They are: Acqua&Sapone, Ag2R, Androni, Bmc, Cofidis, Fdj, Colnago-Csf, Farnese-Neri, Euskaltel, Geox-Tmc, Htc-High Road, Katusha, Lampre- Isd, Liquigas- Cannondale, Movistar, Astana, Omega- Lotto, Quick Step, Rabobank, Saxo Bank, Sky, Garmin- Cervelo, Leopard-Trek, RadioShack and Vacansoleil-Dcm.

The reason of course that Oscar Freire is wearing the number 1 on his back is that he is the defending champion here, after he upstaged Boonen and Petacchi on the via Roma last year. The Spaniard hasn't been touted by many as a winner for today, but that was also the case last year, and with three victories already in this race, he certainly can't be discounted.

A quick reminder of the numbers of the big favourites: 1. Freire, 41. Ballan, 43. Hincapie, 51. Modolo, 52. Belletti, 81. Visconti, 111. Cavendish, 121. Pozzato, 131. Petacchi, 132. Scarponi, 141. Nibali, 142. Sagan, 161. Gilbert, 162. Greipel, 171. Davis, 181. Boonen, 193. J.J. Haedo, 201. Wiggins, 202. Boasson Hagen, 211. Hushovd, 212. Farrar, 213. Haussler, 221. Cancellara, 222. Bennati, 231. McEwen, 232. Hunter.

The official rolling start is now given on the Via della Chiesa Rossa, and the racing is now underway in earnest.