“On the Cipressa I felt I wasn’t at my best” – Mathieu van der Poel left frustrated after crash disrupts Milano-Sanremo bid

Mathieu van der Poel’s Milano-Sanremo challenge was undone before the race reached its decisive point, with the Dutchman admitting the impact of a crash on the run-in to the Cipressa left him chasing rather than dictating the race.

The defending champion had been positioned as one of the key protagonists once again, expected to respond to or counter the anticipated attacks from Tadej Pogacar. Instead, his race was thrown off course at the worst possible moment. “I’m quite disappointed,” Van der Poel said after the finish. “There was a bike in front of me, and I couldn’t go around it, so I crashed.”

The incident came during the intense fight for position ahead of the Cipressa, a phase where the peloton is at its most stretched and vulnerable. Several riders were caught up, but for Van der Poel, the timing proved especially costly. “It’s mainly my hand that hurts a bit. I also had a bike from Lidl-Trek come into me.”

Although he was able to rejoin the peloton with the help of his team, the damage was already done. “The team did a really good job bringing me back, but on the Cipressa, I already felt that I wasn’t at my best anymore.”

That moment effectively changed the role he could play in the race. Rather than being in a position to respond immediately to the decisive accelerations, Van der Poel was forced into a more reactive approach. “That’s where I lost contact, after the crash.”

As the race moved onto the Poggio, the difference became clear.

While Pogacar launched repeated attacks at the front and Tom Pidcock followed, Van der Poel was no longer able to respond in the same way as in previous editions. Instead, he settled into his own effort, limiting his losses rather than shaping the outcome. “On the Poggio, I rode my own pace, like Ganna did last year. I realised quite quickly that I had to ride my own race.”

That decision kept him in contention for the podium, but removed him from the fight for victory. Up ahead, Pogacar and Pidcock moved clear and ultimately contested the win in a two-man sprint, leaving Van der Poel to regroup within the chasing pack.

Even after the climb, there was still a sense that the race had not completely escaped him, particularly given the narrow margins involved. “Unfortunately, Tadej and Tom didn’t look at each other.”

It was a moment that hinted at what might have been, had the dynamics at the front played out differently or had Van der Poel been able to arrive on the Poggio in full condition.

Instead, he was left to reflect on how quickly Milano-Sanremo can turn. “My finger hurts, but I think it’s not too bad.”

Milano-Sanremo is often defined by what happens on the Poggio, but for Van der Poel, the decisive moment came earlier. The crash on the approach to the Cipressa did not end his race, but it altered it just enough to take away the edge required to follow the winning move.

In a race where positioning and timing are everything, that small shift proved decisive.

For a rider who had won the race twice and knows exactly what it takes to control the finale, the frustration was clear. This time, the race moved on without him.