Magical Mathieu van der Poel denies Filippo Ganna & Tadej Pogacar in Milano-Sanremo for the ages!

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 .