Mathieu van der Poel outguns Tadej Pogacar and Filippo Ganna to seal Milano-Sanremo win for the ages -'I surprised them'
Published 22/03/2025 at 18:06 GMT
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The Milano-Sanremo rule book was ripped up as Tadej Pogacar looked to break up the race early, but could not distance his great rival Mathieu van der Poel. The Dutch rider endured multiple attacks on the Cipressa and the Poggio, before sprinting to a huge second career Milano-Sanremo victory. After being distanced on the final climb, Filippo Ganna came back for a strong second-place finish.
‘Pure drama’ as Van der Poel edges Pogacar at Milano-Sanremo - ‘What on earth have we just seen?!’
Video credit: TNT Sports
Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG) delivered a Milano-Sanremo sure to live long in the memory, putting Pogacar to the sword after the world champion had made multiple early, but unsuccessful, attacks.
Along with Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), the pair broke free from the rest of the peloton on the Cipressa, the penultimate climb of the race.
On the Poggio - where many recent moves have succeeded - Van der Poel and Pogacar were able to distance themselves from the Italian, but they could not be separated from each other.
They reached Via Roma together and just as Filippo Ganna tagged on, Van der Poel launched a surprise long sprint that neither of the others could match.
A much-anticipated Milano-Sanremo was billed as a battle between Van der Poel and Pogacar. It was particularly framed as a question of how tactically, the lightweight world champion could see off the power rider of Van der Poel.
After he failed to distance his rival on the Poggio in 2024, the consensus seemed to be that Pogacar would need to go longer on the Cipressa this time around.
In the early morning spring gloom, the race set out from Pavia - a satellite sibling of Milan - as seven ProTeam riders got away with little fuss: Alessandro Verre, Mathis Le Berre (Arkea-B&B Hotels), Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto), Tommaso Nencini, Mark Stewart (Solution Tech-Vini Fantini), Martin Marcellusi and Filippo Turconi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane).
They were joined, after some debate, by Stewart and Nencini’s team-mate Kristian Sbaragli.
In full wet weather outfits, the break made a beeline for the Ligurian coast, where they turned east towards Sanremo and the weather took a turn for the better. Behind, Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was tasked with ensuring their lead never got out of hand. Five minutes was the limit, although it spent most of the day hovering between three and four.
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The Swiss rider led the peloton with 65km to go, where the race entered a new phase and other teams were allowed to be active. Ineos, in the shape of Geraint Thomas, were particularly prominent in the run-up to the three short, spikey climbs known as the 'Capi'.
The breakaway’s lead came down precipitously from thereon. With 30km to go, Marcellusi was left on his own.
Three kilometres later, as the peloton hit the Cipressa, Marcellusi was done too. UAE hit the front,
with Tim Wellens setting the furious pace Pogacar had called for. He soon handed over to team-mate Jonathan Narvaez, who drilled it as hard as he could before moving aside for the first inevitable Pogacar attack.
That was enough to see off everyone except Van der Poel and Ganna. Further acts of aggression seemed to wear them down but were not sufficient to distance either man, and the trio went over the top with a 32-second lead. That gap only increased on the descent and by the Poggio had grown to a minute. The podium was all but settled.
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Pogacar had to try again on the final climb but every time he looked behind, the broad figure of the Dutchman loomed large. Van der Poel was able to try an attack of his own near the top, but Pogacar was able to hang on. They were both able to put time into Ganna, who looked to be out of contention as the road dipped down again.
He was not, and descended better to claw his way back just past the flamme rouge. A late sprint seemed likely, but Van der Poel went long and made it last. Neither Ganna nor Pogacar came close to his wheel, both repeating their best-ever results in the race. For Van der Poel it is a seventh Monument title.
"My finish line was on top of Poggio with Tadej," said Van der Poel afterwards. "Because I knew [Pogacar] was trying to drop me, but I felt pretty strong.
"I hoped I could counter but he was strong enough to get me back."
Explaining his decision to go long on Via Roma, Van der Poel added: "[I] knew the other two wanted to make it a long sprint - they probably thought I was going to make it as short as possible - and I surprised them a bit.
"When I saw the 300m sign I launched my sprint. I felt strong enough to keep it to the finish line. I think it was the right tactic."
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