Van der Poel Beats Pogačar and Ganna in Milan-Sanremo Finale

Surprise: The winning tactic

The three riders were together with 800 meters left to ride after Ganna had made up a 10-second gap on the descent from the Poggio. Van der Poel launched the sprint with about 300 meters to go and kept his lead all the way to the line.

After the race, he said he wanted to surprise his two rivals. “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-meter sign, I launched my sprint and felt strong enough to keep it to the finish line.”

He went on to say, “It’s hard to believe. 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. This is the third year in a row that we have won with the team, and it is unique.” Teammate Jasper Philipsen won last year’s edition of the race, while van der Poel won in 2023. Philipsen finished 163rd, at 16:48, his form compromised by a crash he suffered on Wednesday in the Nokere Koerse.

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Příspěvek sdílený Milano Sanremo (@milanosanremo_)

For Pogačar, who finished third, it was his fifth failure to win the race. He set off the fireworks with 25km to go when he accelerated on the ascent of the Cipressa (5.6km @ 4%) after his team had done its best to sap the strength of his rivals’ legs. Only Ganna and van der Poel managed to stay on his wheel as the Slovenian broke the record for the ascent, taking 8:55 to climb the mountain.

On the climb of the Poggio (3.6km @ 3.7%), Ganna fell back and looked beaten. While he went into time trial mode to catch up, van der Poel was content to ride on the Slovenian’s wheel for long stretches. The tactic worked brilliantly because when it was time to sprint, the Dutchman had better legs than his rivals did.

Pogačar knew he was at a disadvantage by doing all the attacking and letting van der Poel sit on his wheel, but he had only praise for the winner. “[Van der Poel] didn’t care if there were two or three of us in the final,” he said. “For me, it would [have been] better if it were just the two of us or even if I were alone, but he knew he could sit on my wheel and that I’d try to attack, which was obvious. Mathieu was the fastest, so ‘chapeau’ to him.”

Pogačar again defeated by the course

“We did everything possible, not just me,” Pogačar said. “I can be really proud of how we rode today. Every year we do better, and we showed more aggression and more willpower on the Cipressa. Today we did an amazing race. I tried to finish it off, but there were two guys faster than me.”

Not faster; stronger – for Pogačar had probably done too much work in igniting the breakaway and in his repeated efforts to drop van der Poel and Ganna. But he and his team probably felt that he had no choice. Leaving the attack for later could have seen him accompanied into the final kilometer by such strong sprinters as Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), and Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla), who won the bunch sprint for fourth place, 43 seconds behind the winner.

“I tried to go alone on the Cipressa, but it would be really surprising for it to work,” Pogačar said. “But I was also happy to go away with Mathieu and Filippo. I then tried to attack them on the Poggio, but I knew I needed to go early. Then in the sprint, we all started to sprint together at 300 meters.”

But Pogačar being Pogačar, he was far from discouraged by yet another setback. “I don’t hate Milan-Sanremo, but one year it needs to go right,” he said. “For sure, we will come back for more next year.”

As for Ganna, who finished a very courageous second, he was rightly proud of his performance. “I tried to follow the two gods of cycling,” Ganna said. “I couldn’t do anything more. Those two guys have taken several years off my life. I think this is one of my best-ever performances. But what else can I do?”

The 28-year-old Italian could even joke about the loss in an interview with the Italian website BiciPro. “There have been champions who took 14 years to win this race,” he said. “Let’s hope it takes me less because otherwise, I will have to extend my career too much.”