“I saw him on the ground when we crashed… next time I saw him was at the finish” – Wout van Aert stunned by Tadej Pogacar’s Milano-Sanremo turnaround

Wout van Aert’s Milano-Sanremo ended with a place on the podium, but his race was shaped by the same moment that defined the entire Monument: the high-speed crash on the approach to the Cipressa.

The Belgian was among several riders brought down in the incident, alongside eventual winner Tadej Pogacar. In a race where timing is everything, the crash forced Van Aert into immediate damage limitation, chasing rather than shaping the decisive phase.

Despite that setback, he still managed to fight his way back into contention and secure a top-three finish.

Yet it was what happened next that left the strongest impression. “I saw him next to me on the ground when we crashed, and the next time I saw him was at the finish,” Van Aert said in conversation with Cycling Pro Net.

The incident disrupted not only the rhythm of the race, but also Van Aert’s own ambitions.

Rather than being in a position to respond to the key attacks on the Cipressa and Poggio, he was forced to rely on his team to bring him back into the race. “In the final, I felt like I was racing on the back foot the whole time,” he explained. “Only in the last two or three kilometres did I realise we were still racing for the podium.”

That shift in mindset underlined how much the crash had altered his race. From a contender for victory, Van Aert was suddenly focused on salvaging the best possible result. “The circumstances are what they are, and we still reached the maximum possible. I’m happy with that.”

Even with that perspective, the result required a significant effort.

After losing ground and spending valuable energy in the chase, Van Aert still had enough left to contest the podium places from the reduced group behind the leaders. “It never feels like a win when you finish third,” he said. “But it was very unfortunate. First, the crash, and then it took quite a long time before I could continue on a new bike.”

That delay proved costly in a race where seconds can decide everything. “The team did a great job staying with me and bringing me back. The only thing I could do was try to go for the best result possible.”

While Van Aert was fighting to recover, Pogacar was rewriting the race at the front.

After also hitting the deck in the same crash, the Slovenian managed to return to the peloton, attack on the Cipressa and Poggio, and ultimately win the race in a photo finish against Tom Pidcock.

For Van Aert, the scale of that comeback was difficult to process in real time. “I have no idea what he did in between, but it must have been impressive,” he said. “It was quite a hard crash, and the fact that he still managed to get to the front like that is strong.”

The contrast between their races highlighted just how decisive that moment had been. Both riders hit the ground, but only one was able to turn that setback into victory.

Despite the circumstances, Van Aert was able to take encouragement from his performance. “I think the confidence was already good coming into this race,” he said. “I take a lot of positives from my performance, and it’s nice that the next races are coming soon.”

Milano-Sanremo may not have delivered the result he was aiming for, but his ride showed that his condition is where it needs to be ahead of the rest of the spring. Still, the defining image of his race remains that moment on the road before the Cipressa.

From lying alongside Pogacar after the crash to watching him stand on the top step of the podium, Van Aert experienced both sides of a Monument that can turn in an instant.