Mathieu van der Poel: "I hope to win Milano-Sanremo one day, but it won't be easy"

Mathieu van der Poel will be an outsider for Milano-Sanremo. It's a very difficult race to win and specially this year he hasn't yet shown his best form. However in 2022 this was his first race of the season, less than two months after he started training for the season, and he finished on the podium.

“Tirreno was a pretty tough race. We had the goal to win a stage with the team. In the end we won two with Jasper, twice in the sprint. I could do good work for him there. In the end, the competition was quite successful," the Dutchman told in a pre-race conference.

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Whilst he managed to help Philipsen to two stage wins with strong leadouts, he couldn't work on his own chances of fighting for a win. He was quite distant at all times in both hilly stages, not being in contention for a result. The work may have done some effect however, and Sanremo is a race very different than those he's faced this year so far.

He's raced up the final kilometers now on several occasions and he knows what to do: “In recent years we have seen that you just have to have the legs to get over the Poggio. I think Jasper can survive. Maybe he won't be among the first five riders, but we've also seen that that's not really necessary to win San Remo," he said, commenting on the chances of his teammate Philipsen.

Soren Kragh Andersen and Quinten Hermans will be two further wildcards for the Belgian team who seeks a strong result. They will primarily focus on the cobbled classics later on however. Van der Poel tells his dream scenario: "Only come up on the Poggio and then solo to victory. But there have only been a few riders in history who have managed to do this.”

“Last year it was a bit surprising that I was at the start, but it was perhaps one of my best editions. I was always in a promising position. That is a start but it is difficult to actually win this race. I hope to win Milan-San Remo one day, but it won't be easy," he concluded.