"This will definitely carry over to the Tour of Flanders" - Jose De Cauwer believes Mathieu van der Poel has mental advantage over Tadej Pogacar after Milano-Sanremo
Cycling
Milano-Sanremo 2025 more than lived up to the hype as Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogacar and Filippo Ganna treated the viewing audience to an absolute cycling spectacle in Italy on Saturday afternoon. In the end, it was Van der Poel who emerged victorious and according to Belgian cycling expert Jose De Cauwer, the Alpecin-Deceuninck leader may have landed a mental blow to Pogacar.
The clearest moment of defiance from Van der Poel against Pogacar came at the top of the Poggio. After having been glued to the world champion's back wheel for every attack and acceleration, Van der Poel himself then countered over the top of the climb. "At the top of the Poggio. After Mathieu's counterattack on Pogacar. That’s when you knew: the advantage was with Van der Poel, he had everything under control. That was a mental blow for Pogacar," notes Sporza's Karl Vannieuwkerke in his and De Cauwer's post-race analysis.
"It’s fantastic, but you have to dare to make your move at that moment. It’s typical Van der Poel," adds De Cauwer in agreement, noting how such a move may have a lasting effect felt deeper into the Spring, when Van der Poel and Pogacar next renew their rivalry. "This will definitely carry over to the Tour of Flanders."
"But it’s not a disaster, you know. It’s not like Van der Poel dropped him on the Poggio. Though, I do feel that from now on, Van der Poel will always go to the line with Pogacar. He’ll beat him," Vannieuwkerke adds. "Because Pogacar beating Van der Poel in a sprint in the E3 or the Tour of Flanders? That’s not going to happen. He’s going to have to drop him. That much is clear."
One of the other hopefuls in Flanders is likely to be De Cauwer and Vannieuwkerke's compatriot Wout van Aert. On the evidence of Milano-Sanremo 2025 though, the Sporza experts admit things don't look good for the Team Visma | Lease a Bike star.
"I think some serious work will need to be done on a mountain in Tenerife. Wout van Aert is on notice: he’ll have to be better than what we’ve seen from him last year," notes Vannieuwkerke. "Also, keep an eye on the team around Van der Poel. Kaden Groves could become very important, and they also have Jasper Philipsen and Gianni Vermeersch. With a much smaller budget, they’ll be able to compete with UAE this spring."
MATHIEU VAN DER POEL TAKES A MILANO-SANREMO FOR THE AGES 🏆 pic.twitter.com/Xm1tUvNsr6
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) March 22, 2025
The climbs are steeper on Flanders giving Pogi the advanatge as we saw before when he won!
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- MSR really did open the can of worms.... A personal view, of the three noted Tadej is most likely to get the set he has the skill, the talent and sheer bloody-mindedness to win everywhere. Yes the it'll all have to come right to pick up Roubaix and MSR but he's already proved himself on all terrain. I'd rate Remco's chances of getting the 5 fractionally higher than MVDP, he can climb so LBL/Lombardia as less of a problem but he's yet to prove himself on the other races and we don't know how well and how quick he'll get back to where he was after injury, this has been a long lay off. MVDP, I'd love to see him do it but I think Lombardia is too much of a stretch, the organisers will not create an "easier" route just to pull him in. I've said on other articles that I fear for Wout, I don't know that he is at the same level as MVDP and Tadej anymore, they have cranked the level up while Wout has been recovering from last years debacle. Will it happen who knows but it's going to be incredible to watch over the next couple of years!slappers6625-03-2025
- I think that when Caleb unleashed his sprint, he unleashed a couple of years of built up frustration as well.
santiagobenites25-03-2025 - The guy has changed teams so often they are not sure what one is currently his.Cyclingsbestfan25-03-2025
- Do you honestly not have a picture of Ewan in his correct team kit?JoBro25-03-2025
- that sounds right. at Roubaix, any of the strong riders who has better luck than the other elites can win. not the case at flanders, where THE strongest almost always wins. (which means rvv will be either tadej or mathieu.)OCexile25-03-2025
- Yes try riding same distances as themen as courses as hard. No point wanting same money if you are not putting the miles and same work in.paultryan200225-03-2025
- Come on, shorter stages, easier stages, less stages, easier one day races, shorter one day races, far lesser competition, slower speed, lack of bike handling skills and strategy … you can demand equality where it is due.. but that is rather not the case here. The men’s race was 20x more entertaining, so receiving 10x less is rather fair.
UltimateOpportunist25-03-2025 - this is officially the stupidest article i’ve ever read about cycling, or maybe anything else. i want those 2 minutes of my life back…OCexile25-03-2025
- I agree, this article is silly. Pogacar won that TdF because he was stronger than Roglic on the time trial not because he was unknown. Each rider has their own strengths and ride to those. Each of the classics and monuments have their own unique features that the riders must strategize.GB25-03-2025
- Yes, I think he still has a lot to say in road cycling. In the CX races he showed a very good gear but... the problem was essentially his NERVOUSNESS then he took bad decisions in finding the best strategies and paths. He needs confidence (calm down) and maybe a very good preparation gave him that.
maria2024202425-03-2025