{"id":488873,"date":"2026-03-22T06:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T06:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/488873\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T06:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T06:57:08","slug":"mike-teunissen-explains-what-tv-missed-as-van-der-poel-and-van-aert-battled-back-in-milan-sanremo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/488873\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Teunissen explains what TV missed as Van der Poel and Van Aert battled back in Milan-Sanremo"},"content":{"rendered":"

And there he is again, right up there among the best: Mike Teunissen<\/a> of XDS-Astana. The rider from Limburg finished 14th on Saturday in Milan-Sanremo and took the time afterward to share his take on the thrilling race with IDLProCycling.com. \u201cWhat Mathieu does really shows his character.\u201d <\/p>\n

Like so many of his colleagues, Teunissen didn\u2019t have an ideal race. \u201cI was caught up in that crash, with all the big names. It\u2019s always crowded here in Sanremo, and 99 times out of 100 it goes well, but yeah, that one time\u2026 there were a lot of big names down there, and that was pretty striking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, alongside the big man from Ysselsteyn, others involved included Mathieu van der Poel<\/a>, Tadej Pogacar<\/a>, and Wout van Aert<\/a>. However, we didn\u2019t see MVDP\u2019s crash on the TV broadcast. \u201cI don\u2019t know exactly what happened either. But that\u2019s how it goes in a peloton: they get tangled up and they go down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read on below the video!<\/p>\n

Teunissen witnessed Van der Poel\u2019s chase up close<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, I was in that group with Mathieu van der Poel, the first one behind the peloton,\u201d said Teunissen. \u201cBut, well, I\u2019m not capable of immediately passing forty riders on the Cipressa,\u201d he said in awe.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeriously, Tom, those guys\u2014it\u2019s insane\u2026\u201d Teunissen looks at us as we briefly show him the damage to Van der Poel\u2019s bike on our smartphone. \u201cI\u2019ve been riding flat out for five kilometers\u2014and I mean really flat out\u2014right on the wheel of those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then we start the Cipressa, we\u2019re riding as hard as we can, and within a kilometer he\u2019s already closed that twenty-second gap. And he\u2019s right at the front: how is that even possible?\u201d says the XDS-Astana rider, who has seen his fair share of impressive surges from his compatriot over the years.<\/p>\n

\u2018So I couldn\u2019t keep up with Mathieu, after which I ended up with Wout and Jorgenson. And the two of them managed to bridge the gap. And then I was back in the peloton, which was a stroke of luck,\u2019 Teunissen continues.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

Teunissen once again among the big names<\/p>\n

That put him back in the race. \u201cEspecially when the pace is that fast on the Cipressa, everyone\u2019s completely spent by the time they hit the Poggio. And you start with a few turns, which makes it hard to really make a difference. Actually, no one gets dropped there, except for the guys who\u2019ve been leading the pack. The Cipressa\u2014that\u2019s the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a brief moment, it even looked like the main group might catch up from the front, but they fell just four seconds short. \u2018It all happens too quickly to let them catch up. If there were still ten kilometers of flat terrain left, it might have been possible.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018There aren\u2019t many riders left to chase, so actually, I was more surprised that we caught Mathieu than I expected we\u2019d catch the others,\u2019 explains Teunissen. \u2018What\u2019s even more impressive: Mathieu gets caught in the final stretch, but still has the sense to sprint for the top ten. That takes real character.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cFourteenth, yeah,\u201d Teunissen ponders. \u201cThat sprint is always a bit special here, but I didn\u2019t get a chance to go for it. I actually still hope to finish in the top ten here someday. Ultimately, I\u2019m glad I was there and got to experience it up close with him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And there he is again, right up there among the best: Mike Teunissen of XDS-Astana. The rider from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,99800,173049,173050,101,8782,56,54,55,8783],"class_list":["post-488873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","tag-mike-teunissen","tag-milan-san-remo","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wout-van-aert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}