Tadej Pogacar disappointed to miss out on Milano-Sanremo victory: "I had incredible legs but this year was not hard enough"

Tadej Pogacar was the star of Milano-Sanremo, but not the winner. UAE Team Emirates did everything they could to smash the race to bits, and Tadej Pogacar attacked the Poggio twice... But it was not enough this Saturday as a sprint finale was not avoided.

"We had a plan, we stuck to it, but we missed a little bit 10% in Cipressa and after. In the end the team had to wait too long in the Poggio so it was not too hard," Pogacar said in a post-race interview. UAE had Alessandro Covi, Isaac Del Toro and Tim Wellens press on the Cipressa, very hard in the first half but less so in the second as the team lacked the riders. However in the Poggio, Wellens once again set Pogacar for an attack. He regrets not having more men to push the pace in the base of the climb however.

"I tried two times attack, I had incredible legs but this year was not hard enough for the big climbers race," the Slovenian admits. "I did everything I could to be in third place, I think in this situation I couldn't have done much better but it was close." He and Mathieu van der Poel had a gap at the top of the Poggio, but it was closed in the descent. He waited for the final sprint then where he still rode to a strong third ahead of Mads Pedersen, but did not have the speed that riders such as Jasper Philipsen and Michael Matthews had.

"I think actually today was one of the easiest races ever," he said of what is now the fastest edition in the race's history. "We rode super easy tempo the first few hours, but anyway like I said before the race everything needs to be perfection, and today not everything was perfect. But yes we did good and I think podium was the most we could do."