Magical Mathieu van der Poel denies Filippo Ganna & Tadej Pogacar in Milano-Sanremo for the ages!
Cycling
After an enthralling day of racing Mathieu van der Poel has prevailed at Milano-Sanremo 2025, winning a thrilling three-up sprint ahead of Filippo Ganna and Tadej Pogacar!
In the breakaway of the day, eight riders got themselves up the road. As you might expect at Milano-Sanremo, the majority were Italian too, five of the eight in fact as VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè duo Martin Marcellusi and Filippo Turconi were joined by Team Solution Tech - Vini Fantini's Tommaso Nencini, Kristian Sbaragli and Mark Stewart, Arkéa - B&B Hotels' pair Mathis Le Berre and Alessandro Verre, plus Baptiste Veistroffer of Lotto.
Although the break did at one point have an advantage stretching out to around the five minute mark, with 100km to go, the peloton had already narrowed that gap to just 3:40. Although that time gap held for a long while, as the race began to head towards the traditional finale route though, the INEOS Grenadiers took control at the front of the peloton heading into the final 60km through Geraint Thomas and immediately the advantage of the breakaway began to tumble.
By the time the Capo Mele began at around 53km to go, the break's lead was just 2:35. After moments of drama saw Laurence Pithie crash and Jasper Philipsen out the back of the bunch due to a puncture, by the time of the Capo Berta at 42km to go, the break's lead was just 1:22. On the climb, the break then exploded under the pressure of the chase behind. At the summit, Marcellusi led solo, leading the peloton by 1:05.
As the Cipressa began though, the Italian was immediately swallowed up. As UAE Team Emirates - XRG then ignited the race, first through Tim Wellens and Jhonatan Narvaez, Tadej Pogacar himself then made a massive move at 24.6km to go. Both Mathieu van der Poel and Filippo Ganna were able to match the initial move though and the superstar trio summited the climb locked together.
On the descent, the trio of Pogacar, Van der Poel and Ganna were actually extending their advantage over the chase group. Despite things coming back together behind it was a little uncertain who would do the majority of the work and that was ultimately proving fatal.
As the Poggio began, Pogacar made an immediate attack. Van der Poel though was glued to the back wheel and although Ganna was distanced initally, the Italian tempo'd himself back in true time trial specialist style. As soon as Ganna got back though, Pogacar attacked again, but once more Van der Poel refused to budge from the world champion's back wheel. Before the top of the climb, Van der Poel himself then attempted an assault but as the descent began the two were locked together, Ganna around 10 seconds back.
Because of Ganna's work, Pogacar and Van der Poel couldn't afford to look at each other. Inside the final kilometre the Italian made contact, forcing a three-up sprint for the line! Reminiscent of a track sprint, things slowed right down before Van der Poel and there proved to be no stopping the Dutchman as Van der Poel won from Ganna and Pogacar .
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i remember when not too long ago mathieu was regarded as a real tactical knucklehead. i’m not sure that was ever quite accurate, but it’s certainly the case that over the years he has become a real master tactician. in the biggest races, van der poel rarely makes choices that don’t fully optimize every specific advantage he has.
I like my statistics: Pogacar and van der Poel have won 13 of the last 18 Monuments and are tied at 7 each (MvdP won his first long enough ago that it doesn't show the more recent utter domination.) Oh, and the last 2 road world championships. Oh, and one of them also won the last Tour and Giro, while the other won the CX and Gravel world championships. I mean, anyone reading this site knows all this, but it's worth being amazed by it all every now and then.
They are without doubt not just the best two classics riders of this generation, but amongst the best of all time. MvdP is more suited to MSR and PR (which Pog has yet to race), while Pog is now almost untouchable at LBL and Lombardia. RVV is the only one where both basically have an equal chance to win.
Congratulations to all three on the podium. The final seconds reminded me of E3 a few years back, when tiny little Pogacar had no chance against van Aert and van der Poel, but that was just the last few seconds of an incredible race. Everything from the launch on the Cipressa to crossing the line was amazing.
Great race! Tadej did everything he could to win but MVP showed why he's so great in the classics. There were no losers on the final podium.
Possibly the best MSR ever, Chapeau to each of the three, an incredible race to watch!
Now that was an entertaining and exciting race finale. Chapeau to Mathieu on another MSR victory.
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- Sorry, 30 years old. How many 30y old records are left in Athletics, 1, max 2 maybeMistermaumau23-03-2025
- So? Big news, 3 of the fastest riders ever after nicely warming up in Z2 for hours battle it out to the limit on a hill with tailwind and break a 20 year old record with far superior tech and methods, big deal. It happens in every sport, regularly. Nothing mysteriousMistermaumau23-03-2025
- Two riders unlike any others over the past few decades, during this era of carb fueling, seems relevant to me.RidesHills23-03-2025
- Funny that they shorten women’s races but have no qualms about letting U23 do the same distances.Jumpyjohn23-03-2025
- Why is that relevant when discussing speed?Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- But he wasn’t the only one ;-)Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- Obviously the questions are more important to some here than to them or the team so I suggest looking for answers instead of asking questions between ourselves. We’ll probably get them unless someone actually goes to ask the protagonists themselves. Here are some starters : They like riding together; they have their own rivalry that helps bring out the best in both; they might get more points helping each other compared to racing separate races. In any case, unless we hear MJ complaining about it, I don’t think it’s going to change, it’s the Sepp Kuss syndrome all over again, fans lobbying against the will of the rider.Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- Mine goes to MVDP for entertaining us all year round :-) Stellar race, Ganna impressive in his own way as many predicted after some oddly lacklustre times.Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- i remember when not too long ago mathieu was regarded as a real tactical knucklehead. i’m not sure that was ever quite accurate, but it’s certainly the case that over the years he has become a real master tactician. in the biggest races, van der poel rarely makes choices that don’t fully optimize every specific advantage he has.OCexile23-03-2025
- Whatever the result, I believe the strategy by UAE to launch Pogacar was absolutely the right one. Unfortunately, they just were not able to execute it the way they must have planned, being all over the place at the start of the Cipressa.Cooldude23-03-2025