"Racing is not a PlayStation" - Matxin understands that Mathieu van der Poel was too strong for even Pogacar to drop in Sanremo

UAE Team Emirates - XRG planned and delivered a magnificent Milano - Sanremo. Although the expectations were very high and the chances of executing a plan to perfection were low, they did their job right in setting up Tadej Pogacar to attack up the Cipressa. It wasn't ultimately enough to win the race, but manager Joxean Matxin is still proud of how the attack was executed.

"The past three editions we had tried it on the Poggio each time. It was high time to change that protocol", Matxin said in an interview with Het Laatste Nieuws. "Isaac [Del Toro] who took over completely, Tadej attacked and Narvaéz who would stop and protect: that's what we had in mind. Unfortunately, Del Toro had a positioning problem. He was too far back. Which meant we had to change gears."

After moving in the Poggio didn't work in recent years, the focus changed to the penultimate climb of the day. It proved to be the correct decision: "The Cipressa lent itself to throwing all the fast men overboard. More so than the Poggio, where you can't easily achieve that with barely five minutes of climbing. You can't ride away sprinters with power and substance there. Then you take them to the finish and you get a completely different scenario."

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Tim Wellens and Jhonatan Narváez did a stellar job for around 4 minutes at the entrance of the Poggio, themselves splitting the field to only a few dozen riders before the rainbow jersey himself went all-out to try and win the race solo. If it weren't for an incredibly resilient Mathieu van der Poel, he might just have succeeded.

"Racing is not a PlayStation. It didn't surprise me at all that Van der Poel hung on. He's a different type of rider than Tadej. A little less of a climber, but more explosive. You can safely put the two at the same height."

Lastly the Spaniard was asked once again about Pogacar's possible Paris-Roubaix presence, but the answer at this point has almost become the same daily which was not to his delight. "Don't ask me again if he's going to ride Paris-Roubaix, please. The fact is that both Tadej and Mathieu are even more suited for those kinds of races. Van der Poel is a real 'crack' on those hills and cobblestones. So it won't be easy for us there either."

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UAE manager proud of the show delivered by his team and Tadej Pogacar: "The attack on the Cipressa was the plan"

"I don't hate Milano-Sanremo but one year it needs to go right" - Pogacar fails to deliver on UAE's almost perfect preparation

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