Former Milan-San Remo winners Vincenzo Nibali and Maurizio Fondriest have gone on a training recon of Italy's spring Monument with Q36.5 leader Tom Pidcock, and given the Briton a few ideas about how he can follow in their wheel tracks to triumph on the Via Roma on Saturday, too.
Having lost San Remo as a neo-pro in 1988 to double Tour de France winner Laurent Fignon, Fondriest then triumphed in the same race in 1993, while Nibali had a memorable solo victory in 2018.
Pidcock himself has taken Olympic MTB titles, as well as victories at Alpe d'Huez during the Tour and Strade Bianche, and is coming into Milan-San Remo on the back of a string of early season victories and a sixth place overall in Tirreno-Adriatico.
In 2021, Pidcock was in the thick of the action when Jasper Stuyven attacked at the foot of the Poggio after the descent, and in 2024 he launched a late attack that brought him across to breakaway Matteo Sobrero (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). But his daring last-kilometre move was crushed by 2023 winner Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), setting things up for a sprint triumph for the Dutchman's teammate, Jasper Philipsen.
Fondriest and Nibali were wearing two specially designed Q36.5-made jerseys commemorating their respective victories in San Remo when they joined Pidcock for the closing segment of La Primavera earlier this week.
"San Remo is the most technical of the Monuments," Nibali said afterwards, "To win it requires creativity, the ability to seize the moment. You cannot allow yourself to decide in advance where you will attack.
"For example one year I had decided that I had to wait and only attack on the Poggio. So I waited, waited, waited. Then on the Poggio, I wasn’t able to launch my attack. So you need to know how to improvise, you need to be able to pay maximum attention at all times because things can change at a moment’s notice."
As for what his advice to Pidcock would be, Nibali said "Follow Van der Poel or [Tadej] Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). Tom is the lesser favourite of the three and needs to attack after them."
"When he follows their attacks he needs to try to be ever so slightly conservative in order to be able to attack them again. It’s very hard but I managed to do it a few times in my career - on the descent at Il Lombardia, at Sheffield in the [2014] Tour de France."
"There are always just two roads to victory. Either you are a sprinter who can hold on a bit on short climbs of about six minutes, riding above your threshold, after which all you have to do is sprint. Or else you are an extremely explosive rider, like [Giuseppe] Saronni, [Paolo] Bettini, [Julian] Alaphilippe (Tudor ProCycling), Pogačar, Van der Poel or Tom Pidcock," Fondriest added.
"These are riders with a vicious change of pace and can treat the Poggio like a 500-600m uphill sprint. To attack earlier than the Poggio you need very special weather conditions, like when [Gianni] Bugno won in 1990.
"Maybe there exists a last option which is only available to you if you are not amongst the favourites and that is to attack at the base of the Poggio after the descent, like Stuyven did in ’21."
Q36.5 are not the most powerful team in San Remo this year, but Fondriest argued it was possible to win the Italian Monument without massive firepower to back you up.
"The race is always decided on the Poggio so all you need your team to do is get you to the front before the Poggio. If you have a strong team, like Pogačar, maybe you can set a very high rhythm both on the Cipressa and Poggio," he said.
"But in the end let’s say Pogačar attacks, Van der Poel and Pidcock follow him and all Pogacar’s team has done is make the race for whoever has got the legs… So no, you don’t need a strong team to win Sanremo."
As for specific advice for Pidcock, Fondriest said: "Being the lighter ride in terms of weight amongst the favourites, what he certainly shouldn’t do is attack first on the Poggio.
"He could, for example, stay on Pogačar’s wheel, maybe with three or four other riders, and go over the Poggio first and try to do something on the descent…
"But in general my advice to him would be: be the last to make your move, do not attack before Van der Poel or Pogačar have attacked."
Should Pidcock win he would be the first Briton to do so since Mark Cavendish in 2009, and after Tom Simpson in 1964 and Cavendish 15 years ago, just the third in his country's history.
