Reading his autobiography 'Hunger' which starts with the story of his 1992 Milan-San Remo win and then for subsequent chapters tells everything from the very start.
He crashed twice during the Tirreno Adriatico the week before and smashed both his bikes and there wasn't time to get a replacement so had to ride with a bike that was half an inch too big with the saddle lowered. He broke in a new pair of Vittoria CX tubulars on the final stage of the T-A and had the mechanic glue them on with extra glue for the descents of the Cipressa and Poggio. Unusually for him He also wore a helmet because he had signed a lucrative sponsorship deal with the manufacturers Brancale and would get a bonus for winning a classic wearing it. He said it wasn't very attractive and reminded him of his mother's mixing bowl.