Milano-Sanremo is 'not hard enough' for Tadej Pogacar to win - Nathan van Hooydonck
Published 20/03/2025 at 22:19 GMT
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Nathan van Hooydonck and Adam Blythe have discussed the reasons why Milano-Sanremo has so far eluded three-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar. Speaking to TNT Sports' Ultimate Cycling Show, Van Hooydonck said that the race is "not hard enough for him", while Blythe feels that the tactical battle the route can throw up makes the race "increasingly harder to win".
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Nathan van Hooydonck believes that Tadej Pogacar is the strongest rider of his generation, but has claimed that Milano-Sanremo is not hard enough for him to win.
Pogacar, who has won the Tour de France three times as well as the Giro d'Italia, is yet to taste victory in the 'The Spring Classic'.
Speaking on TNT Sports' Ultimate Cycling Show, Van Hooydonck gave his thoughts on why the race has so far eluded the superstar cyclist.
"It's not hard enough for him, I think," the former Belgian rider said.
"He's definitely the strongest rider of his generation, the most versatile rider of his generation, but this race is super long, the concentration of difficulty is completely towards the final [parts of the race].
"It's difficult, but not too difficult, and a lot of riders are able to survive the first attack of Pogacar, some people are even able to match that attack.
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"Whenever somebody is able to match that attack, tactics are going to play a role and then the race can go either way."
Adam Blythe was also present alongside Van Hooydonck on the sofa, and believes that the distance between the two climbs at the most crucial part of the race - the Cipressa and the Poggio di San Remo - is the reason why.
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"He's trying [to win it], he tries every year," Blythe added. "On the Cipressa, the climb before the Poggio, it's a longer and harder climb than what the Poggio is.
"The last two years, he's really tried on there to split things up. But there's such a gap between the climbs where it's on the coast, and there's not enough climbing on there to make it hard, the groups will probably always come back together.
"For me, that's his problem. If it was closer together, he could attack earlier on the Cipressa. But I think there's 15 or 11 kilometres in between those climbs. It's a chance for him to recover, but it's also a chance for the sprinters to recover as well.
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Pogacar has won the Tour de France three times in his stellar career
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"If you can follow the first attack of Tadej, then it becomes a tactical battle, but when there are more people involved in a tactical battle, it becomes increasingly hard to win, because there's one rider going this way, one rider going that way, whereas Tadej has got one job to do and all eyes, sadly for him, are on that one move, so it becomes increasingly harder for him to win.
"I think it's becoming increasingly harder for him to get away because riders are changing the way they're training, becoming adapted to races such as this.
"I don't think he can't win it, but it's going to be harder and harder and harder to win it."
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Van Hooydonck is more confident of Pogacar's chances of glory in Italy but outlined what he needs to achieve the feat.
"He can definitely win it," Van Hooydonck insisted. "The Cipressa is the climb coming just before the Poggio, but the Cipressa is hard enough if you can ride a very fast pace from the bottom to the top.
"Tadej Pogacar cannot do it by himself, he needs his team to do so. His team needs to pace as fast as possible from the bottom to the top and that's how you can put the different sprinters under pressure and you can already distance them.
"Once he gets his team-mates over the Cipressa and onto the Poggio, they can again start riding a very, very fast pace and then he can launch the decisive attack."
How to watch Milano–Sanremo 2025
You can watch all of the action from Milano-Sanremo 2025 live on TNT Sports and discovery+.
Coverage of the men's race starts at 9:00 UK time, with the women's race available to watch from 9:30.
TNT Sports is available across all major TV platforms, offering a line-up of up to four TV channels (TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports 2, TNT Sports 3, TNT Sports 4), and up to six digital or red-button channels (TNT Sports 5 to 10), and TNT Sports Ultimate plus TNT Sports Box Office HD.
You can subscribe to TNT Sports through discovery+, BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media.
Stream all the top cycling action, including the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana, live and on-demand on TNT Sports and discovery+
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