"I don't hate Milano-Sanremo but one year it needs to go right" - Pogacar fails to deliver on UAE's almost perfect preparation
Cycling
Tadej Pogacar had the ultimate goal of winning Milano-Sanremo this weekend and nothing but that would be a satisfying result. The World Champion and UAE Team Emirates - XRG blew up the race and were incredibly close to succeeding in their mission but only came away with a podium result after perfectly launching an attack on the Cipressa.
For Pogacar, who has now three years of consecutive attempts at finally winning it - in several different ways - has now seen once again a stronger rival take over him. "I don't hate Milan-San Remo but one year it needs to go right," the Slovenian told Cyclingnews in words that are quite marking, a display of the disappointment he at times seems to not show. "For sure we will come for more next year".
UAE had a lineup built piece-by-piece to tackle the Italian monument, and everyone but Isaac del Toro seemed to have played their role to perfection. The Mexican struggled with positioning at the entrance of the Cipressa, but there was no delaying the plan. Tim Wellens and Jhonatan Narváez set a nuclear pace that shred the peloton to bits and then Pogacar's attack created the big gaps. In reality, the only thing preventing him from winning likely was the fact that Mathieu van der Poel managed to follow him - no-one else managed to. One rider only managed to derail UAE's plans.
"We did everything possible, not just me. I can be really proud about how we rode today. Every year we do better and we showed more aggression and more willpower on the Cipressa. Today we did an amazing race, I tried to finish it off, but there were two guys faster than me," the Slovenian laments.
"I tried to go alone on the Cipressa, but it would be really optimistic for it to work but I was also happy to go away with Mathieu and Filippo". In reality taking off solo in the Cipressa was very much possible, even likely, but knowing this plan is now possible to win Sanremo, we could see UAE trying to deploy it once again next year.
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Third place for @TamauPogi in Sanremo.#MilanoSanremo#WeAreUAE pic.twitter.com/Nvn7tWuFS8
— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamEmiratesUAE) March 22, 2025
5 attempts now and not even a 2nd place. It will get to him. Someone once suggested making a deal with VDP, you don’t do MSR, I won’t do LBL, win-win.
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- The finale of this race was an absolute mess, and the last crash that took out 1/2 of the field was caused when a double width road very suddenly funneled into a single lane, and riders had nowhere to go. I find it amazing how some of these courses get approved in the first place. So much for the UCI's campaign for improved rider safety, because if they actually cared, the organizers wouldn't have been allowed to run the finale on this parcours.
santiagobenites26-03-2025 - I hope Wout can come back. He has had 3 terrible crashes--not on par with Froome or Bernal, but at his level just a fraction of a percent is all that separates the grand champions of this new generation. Even if he is back all the way physically, those abrupt confrontations with pavement and mortality take a psychic toll, especially for a father of young kids.
Barney26-03-2025 - Everyone was so keen on free speech for a while, what happened ;-) But seriously, the problem is not so much that he gave his view as that someone follows it and spreads it, not totally unlike the schoolkids running US war games at present ;-)Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- We'll see what happens this year, hopefully he finds himself a little stronger.awp26-03-2025
- awp, the way and races he races, he probably doesn’t feel like he needs that many or specific race days before the Tour. His program isn’t very different from other years.Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- No, he just realises he’s not a one-day racer so why should he force himself?Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- Sacrificing E3 and G-W that were planned seems like he was hedging his options and only decided to do it after not winning MSR. Would he have planned to do all 5 and if so why hold back on announcing P-R if it wasn’t conditional? Guess people will get active with predictions now :-).Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- The MTB World title - there is no such thing. However, there are World titles in XCC, XCO, XCM, XCE, Enduro, Downhill......... He's after the World title in XCO, but could probably win the XCC title too, as his record is still better than anybody else, and he hasn't ridden an XCC World Cup since May 2021. Ten wins from twelve races says it all..... However, the XCO course is Crans-Montana is technical - he will surely need plenty of time back on the MTB, both training, and racing, otherwise it's going to be another doomed ambition.wipperman9526-03-2025
- Sweet. I wonder who's up on the next episode of Disgraced Ex-Doper Offers an Unsolicited Opinion?critguy26-03-2025
- well, paris-roubaix isn’t hilly AT ALL. it’s flat. the obstacle isn’t the hills it’s the cobbles, and what i’ve gathered over the years is that it’s almost impossible to imagine the beating that the body takes riding that course at race pace.OCexile26-03-2025