"If you poke the bear, even if you’re the world champion, he’s going to fight back" - Sean Kelly unsurprised by Mathieu van der Poel's Milano-Sanremo magic

For the second time in his career, Mathieu van der Poel powered to victory at Milano-Sanremo last weekend. In arguably one his greatest individual performances, the Dutchman matched everything thrown at him by the all-conquering world champion Tadej Pogacar on the climbs, before leaving both the Slovenian and Filippo Ganna in his dust in the final sprint.

Before the race, Irish cycling icon and two-time Milano-Sanremo winner Sean Kelly questioned how UAE Team Emirates - XRG could jettison the faster finishers in order to boost Pogacar's chances. Their response? A brutal assault launched on the Cipressa. "It was mind-boggling how fast UAE were going," Kelly recalls in a column for Cycling News. "Even they got shuffled around a bit. They didn’t have Isaac del Toro when they needed him, and I do wonder if it might have been a different situation if he’d been there and set a real climbing pace. In the end, though, I think it was always going to be Pogacar, Van der Poel and Ganna who ended up in the front."

"They went so fast up the climb, but the lack of cohesion behind certainly helped, because no teams were really getting organised, or they wanted to save something for the sprint, so that helped them stay away between the Cipressa and the Poggio, something that’s historically been hard to do," adds the 68-year-old.

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Although the race-winning fight had been ignited on the Cipressa, that drama continued in enthralling style on the Poggio as Van der Poel matched every attack from Pogacar, before countering with an acceleration of his own just before the summit. "On the Poggio, Van der Poel knew Pogacar was going to attack, he didn’t even need to look – when you’re as experienced as he is, you can just feel it," analyses Kelly. "He was always right in the wheel, you could see the way he was working, and I knew he wasn’t going to get into difficulty at all."

As mentioned though, in a demoralising moment for Pogacar, not only did Van der Poel match his attacks, but the Dutchman actually countered the world champion, something rarely ever seen over recent years. "I wasn’t surprised when he put in the attack at the top," Kelly notes however. "Because if you poke the bear, even if you’re the world champion, he’s going to fight back, and Van der Poel is a really big bear."

Van der Poel has won Milano-Sanremo twice in the last three years

"Then in the sprint, the way Ganna came back late actually worked well, because it didn’t complicate things too much, and also meant that Van der Poel and Pogacar kept riding in the final because they didn’t want him to come back. But ultimately, Van der Poel rode the sprint perfectly, and he was so explosive when he launched. He was just on top and in control all the way," Kelly's analysis continues. "When you look at San Remo, you’d think that it would be an advantage to Pogacar with the Cipressa and the Poggio, because we know how explosive he is, and even if it is hard for him to make them really, difficult, they’re still tough climbs when you’re going at that pace. So it was going to be difficult for Van der Poel to match Pogacar, but the way he did it on Saturday, he was just a master. It was a masterclass."

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