"This may well have been the best performance of Pogacar's career": Hincapie and Martin in awe of a historic edition of La Primavera

Many are already calling the 2026 edition of Milano-Sanremo one of the finest classics in years. Pogacar crashed with 30 kilometres to go, Van Aert was left stranded behind, and yet both still ended up on the podium. On their podcast The Move, George Hincapie and Spencer Martin tried to make sense of what they had just witnessed.

For Hincapie, Saturday's result was the clearest sign yet of how much Milano-Sanremo has changed. The days of Mark Cavendish and Arnaud Demare winning La Primavera feel like a distant memory. "Milan-San Remo used to be the Monument for sprinters. Now the best climber in the world wins it," he said.

And it is not just about who wins. The race is now ridden at a completely different level on the climbs, year after year. Hincapie, who himself lined up at La Primavera 15 times, knows better than most how brutal those final kilometres are. "It's already so fast heading into those climbs, and then there's the section in between as well. Into the wind, that is really hard," he explained.

What made this edition truly extraordinary was not just the racing itself, but what Pogacar, Pidcock and Van Aert had to overcome to get there. Two of the eventual top three hit the tarmac with 30 kilometres remaining, and yet all three still fought their way back. Hincapie was barely able to believe it. "With 30 kilometres to go, two of the eventual top three hit the ground. It's unbelievable that they still came back from that. I can't remember ever seeing something like it," he said.

What followed was, according to Hincapie, a masterclass in race intelligence. The three leaders managed their effort perfectly, never wasting energy, always knowing exactly how hard to push. "There is such a huge advantage in the slipstream. Normally, the group behind should always bring three riders like that back, but they were just so incredibly strong and controlled it so well. They know exactly what they need to push to stay clear of the peloton. They don't waste a single pedal stroke," he said.

Martin went even further in his assessment of what the Slovenian produced on Saturday. For him, this was not just a great victory, but it may have been the best. "This may well have been the best performance of Pogacar's career," he said, pointing to the enormous weight of expectation that surrounded this race. "The 2021 Tour was fantastic as well, but there was much less pressure on him then than there is now."

And if that was not enough, Martin also sees this result as a sign of what could still come this spring. "Milan-San Remo is the hardest Monument for him to win. If Van der Poel has even one small moment of weakness in Roubaix, Pogacar can win that too." The Monuments season has only just begun, and Pogacar actually has good chances of winning all five.