"Follow Van der Poel or Pogacar" - Vincenzo Nibali's simple yet potentially key advice for Tom Pidcock at Milano-Sanremo 2025

This weekend, Monument season begins in earnest with Milano-Sanremo. Among the men touted as favourites are the all-star trio of Tadej Pogacar, Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock. For Italian icon Vincenzo Nibali, his advice to Pidcock is clear - don't let the other two out of his sights.

"Follow Van der Poel or Pogacar. He is the lesser favourite of the three and needs to attack after them. When he follows their attacks he needs to try to be ever so slightly conservative in order to be able to attack them again," explains Nibali, himself a Milano-Sanremo winner back in 2018, in some in-depth analysis posted to the official website of Pidcock's team, Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team. "It’s very hard. I managed to do it a few times in my career. On the descent at Lombardia, at Sheffield in the Tour de France…"

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"San Remo is the most technical monument. To win it requires creativity, the ability to seize the moment. You cannot allow yourself to decide in advance where you will attack," continues Nibali explaining just what it takes to get the win at Milano-Sanremo, something Pogacar has been striving to achieve for the last few years without success. "For example one year I had decided that I had to wait and only attack on the Poggio. So I waited, waited, waited. Then on the Poggio I wasn’t able to launch my attack. So you need to know how to improvise, you need to be able to pay maximum attention at all times because things can change at a moment’s notice."

"One thing I did in 2018 was I totally snobbed all pre-race events; the presentation, the meet and greet with the mayor of Milan… I had a pre-race build up that was totally relaxed. I didn’t feel the weight of expectation on me," recalls Nibali of his own success. "Also I knew that if I had an advantage at the top of the Poggio I couldn’t do the descent at full gas because I’d already tried that one year and since it’s a technical descent you spend too much energy accellerating out of each corner and you arrive at the bottom cooked. So I knew I had to do the descent fast but without accelerating too hard out of the corners. Also: you have to memorize the descent of the Poggio because every corner looks like you need to break when you first come into it but actually it opens up on the other side. Every year before you race it you should refresh your memory by doing it until you’ve memorized it."

In the opinion of Nibali, three key words need to be kept in mind for any of the race-winning hopefuls at Milano-Sanremo 2025. "Creativity, concentration, improvisation," he concludes firmly.

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