![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/FF10570-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>Riders during the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia and to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 21, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by Fabio Ferrari\/LaPresse)\nPavia To The Turchino: The Breakaway Game<\/p>\n
A nine-man escape cleared the peloton within the opening forty kilometres: Martin Marcellusi and Manuele Tarozzi of Bardiani CSF 7 Saber, Lorenzo Milesi and Manlio Moro of Movistar, Andrea Peron and David Lozano of Novo Nordisk\u2014the all-diabetes squad making their presence felt at the sport\u2019s oldest spring monument\u2014Alexy Faure Prost of Picnic PostNL, and Dario Igor Belletta and Mirco Maestri of Polti VisitMalta, who were racing in their Maglia Iconica, a tribute to the squad\u2019s 1990s colour scheme that gave the early kilometres a pleasantly nostalgic quality.<\/p>\n
Three riders had inadvertently slipped off the front before the break was established\u2014Silvan Dillier, Johan Jacobs, and Axel Laurance finding themselves with a small gap while the peloton was still organising itself, exchanging glances and sitting up until the bunch closed. Dillier stayed at the front regardless, grinding away on behalf of Alpecin\u2013Premier Tech with the kind of unglamorous consistency that keeps races honest. After two hours of racing the average speed stood at 45.2 km\/h; after the first hour it had been 46.5. The break held around four to six minutes through the long Lombard plains.<\/p>\n At Ineos Grenadiers, Filippo Ganna had been speaking before the start with the focused candour of a man who had twice come close without converting. \u201cWinning a Monument means making history. That\u2019s my inspiration.\u201d He had been explicit about the tactical problem: if Poga\u010dar attacked on the Cipressa, and if Mathieu van der Poel was not there to chase, then Ganna\u2019s day would likely end before the Poggio. \u201cI hope Poga\u010dar doesn\u2019t drop Van der Poel\u2014that wouldn\u2019t be good news for me.\u201d A crash on a descent took the problem out of his hands before it arose. Michal Kwiatkowski hit the deck, collecting teammates Ben Turner and Connor Swift. Marcel Camprub\u00ed of Pinarello Q36.5 also went down. Turner and Swift eventually regained the bunch, sore but mobile. Jan Christen of UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG, one of Poga\u010dar\u2019s key lieutenants earmarked for Cipressa pace-setting duties, did not\u2014a first significant blow to the defending team\u2019s resources.<\/p>\n The breakaway\u2019s advantage stood at two minutes ten with 42 kilometres remaining as the peloton swept through the Capi sequence\u2014Capo Mele, then Capo Cervo, then the stiffest of the three headlands, Capo Berta. UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG and Pinarello Q36.5 shared the pacing duties at the front. In front of them, the break was disintegrating. Peron and Lozano of Novo Nordisk lost contact first. Then Faure Prost. Four riders remained: Belletta and Maestri of Polti, and Milesi, and Moro. The gap fell below a minute. The race was about to turn violent, and then the road turned cruel instead.<\/p>\n Imperia: Catastrophe At The Worst Moment<\/p>\n It happened on the approach to Imperia, just kilometres from the Cipressa\u2014the exact worst place and worst moment for a crash of any consequence. The peloton hit a corner and the front disintegrated in an instant. Poga\u010dar went down first. Then Mathieu van der Poel, then Wout van Aert, then Biniam Girmay. Almost every name that mattered on the start sheet found itself on the tarmac or swerving around those who were.<\/p>\n In the pandemonium that followed, it was not yet clear how badly anyone was hurt or how far back the field had splintered. What was clear was that Poga\u010dar, the world champion, was chasing\u2014and that with Christen already out of the race, he now had only Brandon McNulty and Isaac del Toro alongside him. Three riders from the most powerful team in the peloton, the gap to the front still not fully established, the Cipressa beginning in minutes. Van der Poel was also chasing, paced back by Jasper Philipsen. Van Aert was further back still, at a full minute.<\/p>\n \u201cMy teammates Florian and Felix gave everything to bring me back to the front. They gave me hope. Without the team, I would have gone straight to Sanremo just to watch the finish.\u201d\u00a0\u2014 Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/p>\n What Poga\u010dar said afterwards was unambiguous about what the crash had meant in the moment. \u201cFor a second, I thought it was all over. It happened just before the most important part of the race. Luckily I got back on the bike straight away.\u201d He was generous, immediately and at length, about the two teammates who dragged him back: Florian Vermeersch and Felix Grossschartner. \u201cThey gave me hope. Without the team, I would have gone straight to Sanremo just to watch the finish.\u201d By the time the peloton reached the base of the Cipressa, both Poga\u010dar and Van der Poel had made it back. The race was still intact. Just.<\/p>\n The Cipressa: Three Go Clear<\/p>\n Five-point-six kilometres at 4.1 percent. Del Toro hit the front for UAE the moment the road tilted upward and launched Poga\u010dar with the full force of whatever he had left. It was a move constructed for one purpose: to put the world champion at the sharp end before anyone could react. Van der Poel responded. Tom Pidcock of Pinarello Q36.5 latched on immediately\u2014the Briton had spoken before the race with contained confidence about staying \u201crelaxed\u201d through the long approach and trusting that an opportunity would open, and here it was.<\/p>\n By the top of the Cipressa, three riders had more than thirty seconds on a chasing group led by Lidl\u2013Trek: Poga\u010dar, Van der Poel, and Pidcock, descending together toward the Aurelia with the race in their hands. Van Aert, who had been a full minute down after the crash, performed a finisseur\u2019s resurrection on the descent, eventually finishing in the group that would contest the minor places. For now, though, the race had reduced itself to the only question that mattered.<\/p>\n Mads Pedersen, who had been frank before the start about having returned from injury earlier than planned\u2014\u201cWe know the numbers are good, but training isn\u2019t the same as racing\u201d\u2014tried to pull the chase back with Lidl\u2013Trek. Visma also contributed. The gap held at around thirty seconds as the Poggio appeared at nine kilometres from the line.<\/p>\n The Poggio: Pidcock Refuses To Be Dropped<\/p>\n The Poggio di Sanremo: 3.7 kilometres, an average of just under four percent, ramps touching eight on the steepest sections, four hairpin bends in the first two kilometres, and a carriageway that narrows just as the effort is at its worst. Poga\u010dar had noted beforehand that a slight headwind in the finale was a concern\u2014\u201cIt wasn\u2019t ideal, not like last year.\u201d In 2025, Van der Poel had gone over the Cipressa in the perfect conditions and taken the race apart. This year the wind had taken some of the aggression out of the tactics. What remained was the climb itself, and two of the three leaders who had crested the Cipressa together.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar attacked. It was the moment the entire day had been building toward, the violence that a race like this demands from whoever wants it most. Van der Poel, twice a winner here and by his own pre-race admission aware that he needed everything at his absolute peak to live with the world champion, found the gap opening. He lost the wheel. It was Pidcock who stayed\u2014Pidcock who, at 500 metres from the summit, was still glued to the rear wheel of the best rider in the world, answering every acceleration with the clenched, furious economy of a rider who had been planning this moment all spring. Poga\u010dar, gaining again and again on Van der Poel, could not shake the Briton. They crested together.<\/p>\n Behind, the peloton had pulled back a handful of seconds but not enough. Van der Poel was at sixteen seconds. The race was down to two.<\/p>\n The Descent And The Sprint: Centimetres Of History<\/p>\n They descended the Poggio together, the two of them working through the sequence of hairpins and counter-bends that make this descent a race within a race. No surprises. At two kilometres from the finish they were still side by side, eighteen seconds clear of Van der Poel, the rest of the peloton strung out behind. The sprint was inevitable, and Poga\u010dar knew it\u2014knew that Pidcock, explosive and fast, could not simply be waited out.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a bit afraid of Tom Pidcock,\u201d he said afterwards. \u201cWe all know how explosive and fast he is. I couldn\u2019t wait too long, so I launched my sprint early.\u201d He launched it at the roundabout, 850 metres from the line. Pidcock came back at him, hard and direct, the kind of answer that comes from months of preparation finding its moment. At the line it was centimetres. Poga\u010dar, by a margin that the photographers would spend the next hours measuring. Pidcock second, the race of his career reduced to a handful of centimetres on Via Roma.<\/p>\n Behind them, Van Aert read the sprint with a finisseur\u2019s intelligence\u2014launching early enough to claim third place ahead of a peloton group that contained Pedersen, Corbin Strong, Andrea Vendrame, Jasper Stuyven, Van der Poel, Matteo Trentin, and Edoardo Zambanini. Van Aert himself, down a minute after the Imperia crash and seemingly out of the race twenty kilometres earlier, made the podium. It was that kind of afternoon.<\/p>\n The Record Books Rewrite Themselves<\/p>\n The numbers assembled themselves in the minutes after the finish with the clean click of things falling into place. Poga\u010dar\u2019s 110th professional victory. His eleventh Monument win\u2014only Eddy Merckx, with nineteen, has more. His sixth consecutive race win, following the World Championships, the European Championships, Tre Valli Varesine, Il Lombardia, and Strade Bianche. And the end of a 43-year drought: the first world champion to win Milano\u2013Sanremo since Saronni in 1983. The only Monument still missing from his collection is Paris\u2013Roubaix. The velodrome in Roubaix will hear about this afternoon for the next several weeks.<\/p>\n In the press conference, Poga\u010dar was composed and generous and precise. He gave Vermeersch and Grossschartner the credit that was plainly theirs\u2014\u201cThey gave me hope\u201d\u2014and acknowledged the problem that Pidcock had posed. \u201cCe race isn\u2019t ideal for my characteristics,\u201d he had said before the start. That morning\u2019s assessment looks considerably different now.<\/p>\n Pidcock accepted his defeat with the gracious directness of a rider who had done everything right and encountered someone who somehow did more. \u201cIt would be incredible to win in Sanremo,\u201d he had said before the start. He came closer than almost anyone had expected, at a race and on a day when Poga\u010dar had crashed, lost most of his team, and won anyway. \u201cChapeau to him as well,\u201d said the winner, and it was well-meant on both sides of the finish line.<\/p>\n Van Aert, who had characterised himself before the race as an \u201coutsider\u201d and said that being one could offer certain advantages, was proved correct in the most sideways way possible. A podium finish on a day when he had been on the ground in Imperia required everything the Belgian had. \u201cThere should be a bit of a headwind in the finale,\u201d he had said at the start. \u201cThe key thing is that it doesn\u2019t rain.\u201d It didn\u2019t rain. It just got harder than anyone expected.<\/p>\n One hundred and seventeen editions. Since 1907, with gaps only for the wars. The race that, as the old line goes, can be won by anyone on the right day but rarely is\u2014and when it is, by someone who has earned it in a way that goes beyond talent alone. Poga\u010dar had come to Sanremo having won his last six races. He left having won the only one that had eluded him. What he said in Pavia that morning\u2014about the gap between zero and one being the only gap that mattered\u2014was now simply history.<\/p>\n The Classicissima had given him what he wanted. It just made him work for it in a way no one had written in the script.<\/p>\n POS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 \u00a0<\/p>\n NOTES<\/p>\n \u2014 Poga\u010dar\u2019s 110th professional victory and sixth consecutive race win (Worlds, Europeans, Tre Valli Varesine, Il Lombardia, Strade Bianche, Milano\u2013Sanremo).<\/p>\n \u2014 His 11th Monument victory. Only Eddy Merckx has more, with 19. Paris\u2013Roubaix is now the only Monument missing from his palmares.<\/p>\n \u2014 First world champion to win Milano\u2013Sanremo since Giuseppe Saronni in 1983 \u2014 a 43-year wait.<\/p>\n \u2014 Won despite crashing in Imperia, losing most of his team, and chasing back to the front with only McNulty and Del Toro.<\/p>\n \u2014 Pidcock\u2019s result (2nd) is the best by a British rider in the Classicissima\u2019s modern era.<\/p>\n \u2014 Average speed: 45.173 km\/h over 298 km from Pavia to Sanremo.<\/p>\n \u2014 Van Aert took third after being stranded a full minute behind the leaders following the Imperia crash.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n (Visited 16 times, 16 visits today)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He crashed in Imperia, lost his team, and arrived in Sanremo having done the impossible anyway. Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,275245,211219,85],"class_list":["post-557646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-ddsa","tag-milan-san-remo","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Riders during the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia and to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 21, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by Fabio Ferrari\/LaPresse)<\/p>\n<\/a>Riders during the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia and to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 21, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by Fabio Ferrari\/LaPresse)<\/p>\n<\/a>Tadej Poga\u010dar of UAE Team Emirates XRG, Thomas Pidcock of Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team, Mathieu Van Der Poel of Alpecin-Premier Tech during the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia and to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 21, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by Fabio Ferrari\/LaPresse)
\n<\/a>Tadej Poga\u010dar of UAE Team Emirates XRG, Thomas Pidcock of Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team, Mathieu Van Der Poel of Alpecin-Premier Tech during the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia and to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 21, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by Fabio Ferrari\/LaPresse)
\n<\/a>Tadej Poga\u010dar of UAE Team Emirates XRG, Thomas Pidcock of Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team, Mathieu Van Der Poel of Alpecin-Premier Tech during the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia and to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 21, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by Fabio Ferrari\/LaPresse)
\n<\/a>Tadej Poga\u010dar of UAE Team Emirates XRG, Thomas Pidcock of Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team, Mathieu Van Der Poel of Alpecin-Premier Tech during the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia and to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 21, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by Fabio Ferrari\/LaPresse)
\n<\/a>Tadej Poga\u010dar of UAE Team Emirates XRG, Thomas Pidcock of Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team during the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia and to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 21, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by Fabio Ferrari\/LaPresse)<\/p>\n<\/a>Tadej Poga\u010dar of UAE Team Emirates XRG, Thomas Pidcock of Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team during the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia and to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 21, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by Fabio Ferrari\/LaPresse)<\/p>\n<\/a>Mathieu Van Der Poel of Alpecin-Premier Techduring the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia and to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 21, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by POOL Bettini\/Sprintcycling\/LaPresse)
\n<\/a>Tadej Poga?ar of UAE Team Emirates XRG, Thomas Pidcock of Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team during the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia and to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 21, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by POOL Bettini\/Sprintcycling\/LaPresse)
\n<\/a>Tadej Poga?ar of UAE Team Emirates XRG, Thomas Pidcock of Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team during the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia and to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 21, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by POOL Bettini\/Sprintcycling\/LaPresse)<\/p>\n<\/a>Tadej Poga?ar of UAE Team Emirates XRG, Thomas Pidcock of Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team during the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia and to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 21, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by POOL Bettini\/Sprintcycling\/LaPresse)
\n<\/a>Tadej Poga\u010dar of UAE Team Emirates XRG winner and Thomas Pidcock of Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Teamduring the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 20, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by Massimo Paolone\/LaPresse)
\n<\/a>Tadej Poga\u010dar of UAE Team Emirates XRG winner and Thomas Pidcock of Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Teamduring the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 20, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by Massimo Paolone\/LaPresse)
\n<\/a>Tadej Poga\u010dar of UAE Team Emirates XRG winner during the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 20, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by Massimi Paolone\/LaPresse)<\/p>\n<\/a>Tadej Poga\u010dar of UAE Team Emirates XRG winner and Thomas Pidcock of Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Teamduring the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 20, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by Massimo Paolone\/LaPresse)
\n<\/a>Tadej Poga\u010dar of UAE Team Emirates XRG winner and Thomas Pidcock of Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Teamduring the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 20, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by Massimo Paolone\/LaPresse)
\n<\/a>Tadej Poga\u010dar of UAE Team Emirates XRG winner during the men\u2019s elite race of the Milano-Sanremo one day cycling race (298 km) from Pavia to Sanremo \u2013 North West Italy \u2013 March 20, 2026. Sport \u2013 cycling . (Photo by Massimi Paolone\/LaPresse)<\/p>\n
\nRIDER
\nTEAM
\nTIME<\/p>\n
\nTadej Poga\u010dar
\nUAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG
\n6h35\u201949\u2033<\/p>\n
\nTom Pidcock
\nPinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team
\ns.t.<\/p>\n
\nWout Van Aert
\nVisma | Lease a Bike
\n+0:04<\/p>\n
\nMads Pedersen
\nLidl\u2013Trek
\ns.t.<\/p>\n
\nCorbin Strong
\nNSN Cycling Team
\ns.t.<\/p>\n
\nAndrea Vendrame
\nJayco AlUla
\ns.t.<\/p>\n
\nJasper Stuyven
\nSoudal\u2013QuickStep
\ns.t.<\/p>\n
\nMathieu Van der Poel
\nAlpecin\u2013Premier Tech
\ns.t.<\/p>\n
\nMatteo Trentin
\nTudor Pro Cycling
\ns.t.<\/p>\n
\nEdoardo Zambanini
\nBahrain Victorious
\ns.t.<\/p>\n