{"id":491498,"date":"2026-03-23T21:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T21:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/491498\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T21:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T21:25:13","slug":"45-5kph-and-a-415-watt-ftp-tadej-pogacars-historic-milan-san-remo-win-in-7-mind-bending-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/491498\/","title":{"rendered":"45.5kph and a 415-watt FTP \u2013 Tadej Poga\u010dar’s historic Milan-San Remo win in 7 mind-bending numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tadej Poga\u010dar added the fourth of five Monuments to his one-day race tally this weekend, leaving only Paris-Roubaix remaining to finish the set.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Should he win Paris-Roubaix, Poga\u010dar would become only the fourth rider \u2013 behind the Belgians Eddy Merckx, Roger De Vlaeminck and Rik Van Looy \u2013 to complete the feat, with all three of those winning between 1958 and 1979. There\u2019s even talk of Poga\u010dar becoming the first rider to win all five Monuments<\/a> in one year.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar has already won Strade Bianche<\/a> in 2026 and seems to be in unstoppable form again this year. But what does it take to win road cycling\u2019s longest race? Here are the key numbers that underpinned Poga\u010dar\u2018s 2026 Milan-San Remo win.\u00a0<\/p>\n

45.5
\n\"\"Poga\u010dar completed the 298km race at just over 45km\/h. Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar covered the race\u2019s 298km at an average speed of 45.5km, finishing after 6hrs 35mins 49secs in the saddle. That\u2019s a little slower than Mathieu van der Poel\u2019s average of 47.70km\/h for the 2024 Paris-Roubaix<\/a>. But Milan-San Remo has over 2,000m of ascent en route, including the Passo del Turchino and the five climbs in the final 50km.<\/p>\n

79.9<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar\u2018s maximum speed during the race was 79.9km\/h, according to Strava<\/a>, recorded on the run-in to the Cipressa climb. His maximum cadence shown on Strava was 129rpm, apparently on the same stretch of road.<\/p>\n

8.49
\n\"\"Poga\u010dar set a record time over the Cipressa, moving from towards the back to the front of the race. Marco Bertorello \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar\u2018s time to the top of the Cipressa, the penultimate climb of the race and the longest in the finale, was 8mins 49secs. This beat by a few seconds his time in last year\u2019s race, when he set a time of 8mins 57secs, before finishing third behind van der Poel and Filippo Ganna.<\/p>\n

It was all the more impressive, considering Poga\u010dar had started towards the back of the field, having crashed along with others as he approached the base of the climb.<\/p>\n

According to Strava, Poga\u010dar also recorded the third fastest time ever on the 6.84km ascent and descent of the Poggio, the last climb before the finish, where he was bested by Matej Mohori\u010d in 2024.<\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

The number of times Poga\u010dar has ridden Milan-San Remo. His first Milan-San Remo was in 2022, when he finished fifth, having been out-descended by Mohori\u010d with his dropper seatpost.<\/p>\n

He was back in 2023, finishing fourth in a race won by van der Poel. The next year, Poga\u010dar was up to third, behind Jasper Philipsen and Michael Matthews, then third again in 2025.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only at the fifth attempt, this year, that Poga\u010dar has added this fourth Monument to his tally, leaving him only a win in Paris-Roubaix needed to have completed all five. We reckon he might win all five this year, becoming the first rider to do so.<\/p>\n

A handful of centimetres
\n\"\"Poga\u010dar beat Tom Pidcock by just half a wheel after six-and-a-half hours of riding. David Pintens \/ Belga Mag \/ Belga \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar beat Tom Pidcock by mere centimetres in the final two-up sprint to the line. Although Pidcock won the unofficial sixth Monument, Strade Bianche, in 2023, he\u2019s yet to garner a Monument win. Poga\u010dar was only four seconds ahead of the charging bunch, led in by Wout van Aert.<\/p>\n

415<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar\u2018s estimated FTP in watts<\/a> is 415. The actual numbers are kept a close secret within his UAE Team Emirates-XRG team, but this is a value that’s been estimated based on ride data shared in 2024. That gives him a power-to-weight figure close to 7W\/kg and he can keep up 340 watts on a five-hour zone two training ride. His resting heart rate? That\u2019s around 37.<\/p>\n

3,898<\/p>\n

The number of calories Poga\u010dar burned during the race<\/a>, as estimated by Strava. According to Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, he was matching that number in 2023. Maybe he should take to the start line next year\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tadej Poga\u010dar added the fourth of five Monuments to his one-day race tally this weekend, leaving only Paris-Roubaix…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-491498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491498","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=491498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}