Matej Mohoric wins Milano-Sanremo with daredevil descent attack

Bahrain - Victorious have won their second consecutive monument as Matej Mohoric put on the ride of a lifetime to take a brilliant win at Milano-Sanremo, surviving the attacks on the climbs and taking advantage of his superior descending skills to reel in an incredible triumph in the Via Roma.

The longest race of the year saw a large breakaway go up the road early on: Yevgeniy Gidich and Artyom Zakharov (Astana Qazaqstan Team) Alessandro Toneli (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè), Filippo Tagliani and Ricardo Zurita (Drone Hopper - Androni Giocatolli), Filippo Conca (Lotto Soudal), Samuele Rivi and Diego Pablo Sevilla (EOLO-Kometa). The group was of decent size and carved out a gap of seven minutes maximum as the riders went through the flat roads before Turchino, and in the coast they thrived with the tailwind on hand.

The group kept their gap quite well, with the last survivers Tonelli and Rivi surviving until the bottom of the Poggio. The peloton didn't go particularly hard in the Tre Capi but as soon as they hit Cipressa UAE Team Emirates, as expected, drilled the pace hard and reduced the peloton heavily. As the likes of Pidcock, Jakobsen, Viviani and many more were dropped early, UAE burned the group which was reduced to around 20 riders at the top, with only a few riders getting back soon after the descent.

In the run-up to the Poggio to wear-out work continued, and at the bottom of the ascent there was no waiting as Pogacar quickly dealt a series of storming attacks but always with van Aert, Roglic and surprisingly Mathieu van der Poel on the answer. The ascent saw several moves but always with someone in the wheel, Soren Kragh Andersen attack in the steepest ramp and saw Pogacar, van der Poel and van Aert follow all the way into the top of the climb, but the short chasing group was just behind.

As soon as the descent started Mohoric started moving up the group, and soon began a mad dash down the Poggio which almost saw him crash twice. The Bahrain rider got a gap and as soon as that happened it was almost game over for the group as they had to chase down one of the world's best rouleurs.

Despite the concerted chase by the group, there was no perfect collaboration as several riders sat in the wheels, and Mohoric managed to hold on to his painfully earned gap to take what is the biggest win of his career. Anthony Turgis attacked off the chasing group in the final kilometer and got a gap which earned him second place, whilst Mathieu van der Poel won the sprint for third.