Van der Poel in Sanrem remains Pogacar’s unresolved puzzle

The Milano-Sanremo 2025 race will be the most exciting in the Anales in the 118-year history of « Clasicissime ». Unfortunately, Slovenian fans not because of their first victory Tadeja Pogacar (UAE), but because of the epic trumpet of cycling titans, in which the second time it is the first finish to the Roman road cyclists Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin Decunck).

The third great actor was a home trump card Filippo Ganna (Ineos), but even though Pogacar finished after him, he was expected to be the one who « blasted » the 289-kilometer test from Pavia to Sanrem. For the fifth time, he won the victory and this time tried with a new tactical version.

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After his assistants from the UAE team, including Domen Novakwandered the hellish tempo on the penultimate climb of the day to Cypresso, pressed the pedals 24.7 km before the finish. Of the long miles, as well as rain and cold in the first half of the race, the tired caravan was stuck.

With two exceptions, a 26-year-old from Klanca near Komenda, Van der Poel and Ganna were glued to the bike. It could be said that the Council of Cycling, Slovenian, Dutch and Italian, who were wearing or already wearing rainbow T -shirts on the road, in time and cyclocross, drove together, and, according to the cotton wool, they could open a small knife power plant.

The Dutchman did not relent

The initiative was understandably all over Pogacar, on more than not just the plane route are just cypress and poggio slopes, on which it can try to redeem their cycling qualities. His acceleration was violent enough to get rid of Ganna a few times, but not for Van der Poela, whose route of the first seasonal monument is much more written to his skin.

The Dutch AS was at the limit of capacity, but did not let himself up on Poggio, and just before the summit, he even tried the opposite attack, which he secured his first victory in Sanrem last year. This time, Pogačar was strong enough to go down to the city of the largest Italian music festival, where they were captured by Ganna for the final showdown of three.

Sprint revealed that Van der Poel, who also nullified all Pogacar’s attacks last year and then prepared a teammate Jasper Philipsenalong the Ligurian coast feels at home. Pogacar, however, fired all the charges with attacks on the last two slopes.

“We will analyze the race and see what we did wrong, for the back I can say that we took the race well. We tried everything to make the race as explosive as possible, but that was not enough to win, two riders were better. There will be another opportunity next year, « said Pogacar, who finished 3 in a row.

It was his fifth attempt at the largest Italian classic, one of the two monuments that are still missing in his rich laurel collection. Due to the not sufficiently selective route, his explosiveness and the power of the hill do not come to the fore, but the world number one will continue to seek ways to win in Sanrem, where he would have been the first time if there were no extraordinary van der poela among competitors.

A renown next week?

“On paper, the route is too easy for me, I would rather see that Poggio would be 5 kilometers long with a 10 % slope, but it is as it is. It is very difficult to make the difference in this race, here the physical laws are clear, but you can’t charm, « continued Pogacar, who left the last wad of power on the road this time.

“I don’t know what my face looked like because it has no mirror on a bike. It was certainly an expression of pain on it several times. My legs were very good, maybe I was missing the highest power. I could try to attack several times, but I always ran out of a few watts to my maximum, « Pogi, who won the Strade Bianche race two weeks ago but fell badly on his way to her, revealed that Van der Poel could follow him because he was not 100 percent.

If Pogačar adheres to the announced competitive program, we will see the Van der Poel in the E3 Saxo Classic races and the Flanders race for the next two weekends. The Slovenian AS, which, like a Dutch competitor, has a total of seven victories on the monuments, but still did not want to reveal whether it will be on April 13th for the first time in the infamous Paris -Roubaix race.