"They’ve tried going up the Poggio full gas... it’s just not possible to go any faster" - Sean Kelly unsure how Tadej Pogacar & UAE can jettison fastmen at Milano-Sanremo

This weekend in Italy, the first Monument of the 2025 road season will be up for grabs at Milano-Sanremo. As is the case whenever he takes to the startline, world champion Tadej Pogacar will be amongst the leading contenders for the win, but as the previous years have shown, the Slovenian is yet to crack the winning formula for Milano-Sanremo.

In the last three years, Pogacar has been getting consistently closer to the win, without having the ultimate success he craves. 5th in 2022, 4th in 2023 and then last year, on the podium for the first time in 3rd as Jasper Philipsen prevailed in a reduced bunch sprint. And it's that sprint finale that Irish cycling icon Sean Kelly sees Pogacar having problems with again in 2025.

"Winning Strade Bianche for a third time was a great victory for Pogacar, but he has a big challenge coming up at Milano-Sanremo. Looking at the last couple of years, it’s going to be very difficult for him to make a difference in the final," muses the two-time Milano-Sanremo winner in a column for Cycling News.

In the past, Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates - XRG have attempted to jettison the faster finishers by raising the pace on the Poggio. Whilst this is potentially the plan again, Kelly is unsure how much more savage UAE can make the climb, given all their previous attempts have failed. "If he can do something, the only place to do it will be the Poggio. If you go away on the Cipressa with two or three guys, there’s always still a peloton of 30 to 40 guys at least who will be chasing you between the Cipressa and the Poggio, so the stay away from there is just not possible, you have to try something earlier," Kelly says. "What can Pogacar and UAE do though? They’ve tried going up the Poggio full gas and trying to put everyone in difficulty, but they don’t seem to be able to make it hard enough, because so many more riders are able to get over this sort of climb now, the sprinters as well as riders like Filippo Ganna, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert."

"We’ve seen UAE push on at 100% and really set an infernal pace, but it’s just not possible to go any faster. So how do you get rid of the fast riders?" Kelly questions. "Unless you get a really bad day where the weather conditions are horrible and everyone arrives at the Poggio fatigued and wet and cold, then it’s really not a possibility to get rid of enough people."

This weekend, all the questions regarding Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates - XRG's tactics will be answered. Can the Slovenian get it right and claim the Monument win at last? Time will tell.