Lance Armstrong: "To have Pogacar as he does just reinvents these classic races"

Milano-Sanremo took over all of the spotlight over this week and weekend and the reality is the race delivered. Not only was there a formidable show and battle between three legends of the sport, but the race was also decided with an attack on the Cipressa for the first time in almost 30 years. Lance Armstrong praised Tadej Pogacar's doings and how his presence changes races completely.

"There was this expectation that he would finally win Milano-Sanremo, and obviously for this he would need to have a great team - which he does have. I thought UAE Team was misfiring today," Armstrong said in The Move podcast. There was a massive build-up to the race, with months of anticipation over a potential planned attack for the Cipressa and the team looking to support the Slovenian with an A-tier squad, and the plan almost worked to perfection.

"It was no secret, they said it already since last year that they wanted to do the Cipressa in nine minutes or under nine minutes," Johan Bruyneel said, not surprised with the tactic that was put in display. "I don't know what the time is, but then you could still say ok 'even if they do that' they're not going to have a big advantage and they can come back between Cipressa and Poggio'. These guys just race whatever traditional rules there are in cycling about certain races - doesn't matter anymore, they do everything the way they want and it works".

The reality is that cycling is indeed changing and nowadays more and more riders tend to launch long-distance attacks, many times succeeding. Pogacar has done this with success on multiple occasions, and if it was an also nuclear-leveled Mathieu van der Poel following him both at the Cipressa and Poggio, his plan might have worked to capture the fourth monument into his palmarès.

"To have Pogacar as he does just reinvents these classic races. With his strength, with his ability to attack, recover, attack recover... And obviously mentally just as tough as he is... This was a whole new look as I watched, this is a different race, a race like unlike any other spring classic or monument," Bruyneel argues.

However Armstrong was perhaps more impressed with the race winner Mathieu van der Poel at the end of the day, after seeing him be able to respond to the attacks of the rainbow jersey. "Mathieu van der Poel was just that good. i don't know if you guys caught this or not, but when Pogi was going, Ganna was swinging, van der Poel was 'fingers on the nose' did you see his face?"