After breaking through the elusive nine-minute barrier up the Cipressa climb in Milan-San Remo, race winner Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and key animator Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) have quipped about going even faster next season.
For years, the record 9:17 ascent set by Alexandre Gotchenkov and Gabriele Colombo back in 1996 withstood the test of time and continuous assaults in recent seasons by Pogačar and his UAE squad.
However, in 2025, it finally fell, with the world champion launching 3km from the top of the 5.6km climb after an explosive lead-out by Tim Wellens and Jhonatan Narváez, before holding the high pace to set a new benchmark of 8:59, revealed on his Strava.
Van der Poel was able to follow in the wheel throughout the violent attack and would have set a similar time, with Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) close behind and also in contact over the top to record a time of 9:01 on his Strava over the Cipressa.
It would become the race-winning move at La Primavera, with Pogačar failing to break Van der Poel's resolve again on the Poggio before the three men sprinted it out for victory on the Via Roma after Ganna chased back on in the final kilometre. Van der Poel took victory but Pogačar's exceptional attempt will live on in cycling fans' memories for a long time.
"Congrats Mathieu van der Poel and Filippo Ganna. Glad to share the podium with such legends, but don’t be fooled, I will be back for more with an amazing team who did a superb job keeping me safe, leading me out, changing my clothes and feeding me," reflected Pogačar on his Instagram, before Van der Poel jokingly responded.
"Next year Cipressa under 8min?" commented the Dutchman, with Pogačar playing up to the tongue-in-cheek suggestion: "I am analysing right now, we can go a bit faster. Like 59s," said the world champion.
The rest of the peloton crumbled under the pressure of Pogačar lighting things up for a rapid 8:59 ascent, with Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ), who initially held onto the back of the trio of protagonists up the Cipressa before getting dropped, admitting to Eurosport post-race: "When you get a little too close to the sun, you get burned, that's what happened to me."
Second-place finisher Ganna also got involved in the Instagram discussion, encouraging his colleagues to take it easy.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, we can chat about this…" he said, a day after one of his toughest ever days on the bike chasing "two gods of cycling", in an effort where he "couldn't do anything more, those two guys have taken several years off my life."
While they joked about the eight-minute mark, Pogačar and UAE will take confidence going forward in how their Cipressa plan didn't unfold exactly as they wanted, despite Pogačar attacking at the planned moment and the three-man group playing out the finale.
UAE's Milan-San Remo behind-the-scenes video, released on their YouTube channel on Monday morning, confirmed that Isaac del Toro was meant to be the last lead-out man for Pogačar before he exploded away.
Such was the nature of the furious fight into the foot of the climb, and with a crash holding up some riders, Pogačar wasn't ideally positioned and had to move up to the front from around 15th position with Narváez, before the Ecuadorian champion did the final lead-out.
There's unlikely to be an eight-minute ascent any time soon but UAE will certainly think they could execute their Cipressa plan better than they managed in 2025, and that may be what it takes for Pogačar to distance the likes of Van der Poel and finally win Milan-San Remo.
