Milan-San Remo: Mathieu van der Poel withstands attacks from Tadej Pogačar to win Via Roma sprint

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After 289km of racing, the 116th edition of Milan-San Remo was decided by a three-way battle between Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), with the Dutchman emerging victorious in the sprint to the line on the Via Roma.

The explosive finale kicked off on the slopes of the Cipressa, as Pogačar’s squad launched the Slovenian’s inevitable attack with 25km to go. Ganna and Van der Poel were the only ones able to follow the searing acceleration as he attacked again. They then worked together to stay away until the foot of the Poggio when Pogačar went again.

The attack distanced Ganna, but it was not enough to shake Van der Poel, who held the wheel on Pogačar’s preferred terrain. They were neck-and-neck as they began the twisting descent towards San Remo, with both riders knowing it would come down to a sprint.

A brief lull in the pace towards the finish allowed Ganna to chase his way back on before the sprint, which Van der Poel led out from the front. An impressive kick meant that neither Pogačar nor Ganna were able to come around him as he took his second victory at La Classicissima.

Ganna held off Pogačar for second place, with the World Champion having to settle for third place after all of his efforts. 

Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) won the sprint behind for fourth place ahead of his compatriot Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), in yet another top-10 result for the Australian rider at the race.

"It's hard to believe," Van der Poel said in a post-race interview. "I was focused on trying to get the win, but we knew that Tadej was going to be really strong. I felt really good at the end. The beginning was horrible with the rain and the cold, but when we came down to the coast I felt better and better. It is the third year in a row that we won with the team, and it is unique."

Van der Poel said he was able to respond to Pogačar's attacks even though he felt that the World Champion was the strongest of the three on the final climbs.

"I knew Tadej was the strongest on the climbs. Already on the Cipressa, he was impressive, and then we went with three, the cooperation was pretty good. It was a podium spot. My finish was at the top of the Poggio, with Tadej, I knew he was going to try and drop me, but I felt strong. I hoped I could counter but he was strong enough to get me back."

On his sprint on the run-in to the line, Van der Poel said, "I knew the other two wanted to make it a long sprint. They probably thought I would make it as short as possible, so I surprised them a bit when I saw the 300-metre sign, I launched my sprint and felt strong enough to keep it to the finish line."

How it unfolded

Beginning in cold and wet conditions at the start in Pavia, the peloton was a sea of black rain jackets and wet weather clothing as they rolled out for the neutral start. When the flag dropped for the official start of the race a few kilometres later, attacks to get into the breakaway began immediately, with the Italian wildcard teams particularly keen to get numbers up the road.

A few attempts to go clear failed to materialise early on before a three-rider move comprising Alessandro Verre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Tommaso Nencini (Team Solution Tech-Vini Fantini) and Martin Marcellusi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) went up the road. They were then joined by a four-man group of Mathis Le Berre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Mark Stewart (Team Solution Tech-Vini Fantini), Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto) and the youngest rider in the race Filippo Turconi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), with Kristian Sbaragli (Team Solution Tech-Vini Fantini) bridging across solo to make it eight riders at the head of the race.

Gone are the days when the peloton would allow the early breakaway upwards of ten minutes of an advantage at Milan-San Remo, as the gap to today’s escapees never went above six minutes. The man in charge of controlling that gap throughout the day was Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck), working for his teammates Mathieu van der Poel and last year’s winner Jasper Philipsen.

The Swiss rider kept the breakaway’s advantage to around four minutes for the majority of the race, riding on the front of the peloton for more than 200km. All of the favourites’ teams had riders positioned towards the front of the main group, but none wanted to commit riders to the chase, with Dillier content to do all of the work.

As they reached the slopes of the Passo del Turchino with around 150km to go, the gap to the breakaway began to rapidly decrease, falling to under three minutes as the teams in the peloton looked to position themselves ahead of the climb and the descent that was to follow.

After they summited the early climb and began the descent down the other side towards the Ligurian coast, the gap to those at the front began to re-establish itself, going back up to around four minutes. Dillier was still the one on the front of the peloton, keeping the breakaway in check at around four minutes of an advantage.

The peloton then wound their way along the coast towards the Tre Capi climbs, with Dillier finally finishing his turn on the front of the group in the approach to the Capo Mele. Ineos Grenadiers then took up the pacing, with Geraint Thomas leading them through the towns that line the Italian seaside.

The breakaway hit the Capo Mele at 53km to go, with Nencini the first to be dropped from the group. He was swallowed up by the peloton as the gap fell to around two minutes over the top of the climb.

A small crash in the peloton with around 50km to go saw the likes of Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Connor Swift (Ineos Grenadiers) and Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) hit the deck. A puncture for Jasper Philipsen also saw him fall to the back of the peloton, with all four riders able to make their way back onto the bunch.

The Capo Cervo then followed before they reached the Capo Berta. The breakaway began to fracture at the front of the race with Marcellusi going solo over the top. Behind, we started to see the first riders dropped from the peloton on the steep gradients as UAE Team Emirates-XRG began to come to the fore to position Tadej Pogačar.

Approaching the Cipressa, Marcellusi was the last of the breakaway to be caught with 27km to go, as a small crash between two riders saw many held up at the back of the peloton. Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) began to ramp up the pace as they began the penultimate climb of the race, dropping last year’s winner Philipsen from the peloton.

The Belgian emptied the tank for his Slovenian leader on the lower slopes before Jhonathan Narváez took up the pacing. As the Ecuadorian ended his pull, he did an all-out sprint to launch Pogačar’s inevitable attack on the Cipressa. Many attempted to follow the World Champion’s acceleration, but only Filippo Ganna and Mathieu van der Poel were able to follow when he went again towards the top of the climb.

The leading trio worked well together on the descent as they began the run toward the Poggio, exchanging turns to maintain their advantage over the bunch behind. They reached the foot of the final climb with a gap of around 45 seconds as Pogačar accelerated again through the first hairpin.

Ganna was distanced instantly, unable to match the immediate acceleration of the other two, whilst Van der Poel stayed glued to the wheel of the World Champion as he tried to drop him again and again through each of the turns, but he could not open up a sizeable gap.

Van der Poel then tried his own attack with 500m to go until the summit and whilst he was able to briefly distance his rival, it was not enough to snap the elastic and both riders accepted that the race would ultimately be decided in a sprint on the Via Roma.

The twisting downhill towards San Remo saw Ganna claw back some ground on the two at the front, who seemed slightly less willing to fully commit on the descent, and the Italian now had them in his sights as they began the run-in to the finish.

He made the junction with around one kilometre to go, making it a three-way fight for the victory as they entered the final few hundred metres on the Via Roma. Pogačar forced Van der Poel to the front as he slotted in at the back of the group behind the returning Ganna.

Unwilling to wait for the other two to make their moves, Van der Poel launched his sprint from the front, catching Ganna somewhat off-guard and using his kick to instantly open up a small gap. The Italian was unable to match the Dutchman’s acceleration, whilst Pogačar was simply outgunned.  

With neither of them able to come around him, Van der Poel took an emphatic victory and claimed the sixth Monument title of his career, winning Milan-San Remo for the second time in three years.

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