VIDEO | Tadej Pogacar trains up Poggio di Sanremo as he prepares for first monument of the season

The 2026 season is soon beginning and most riders are currently putting in the hours on the bike. Some are in Spain in training camps whilst others stay at home. In Tadej Pogacar's case, home also means the occasional trip to Italy where he explores and trains on the course of Milano-Sanremo. This week he has been seen on the Poggio.

The Slovenian is a resident in Monaco, and this means that besides being able to train mountains in the Alpes Maritimes, he also has the space to train on the long Mediterranean coast. Sanremo is just over 40 kilometers away and he regularly visits the area, including the Poggio di Sanremo and Cipressa where the race is often decided.

In a video recorded by an amateur cyclist in the area, it was possible to see the World Champion climbing the 3-kilometer long ascent, doing a sprint as well. Pogacar will race Sanremo this spring after Strade Bianche, and it will be one of his major goals of the year. Alongside Paris-Roubaix, Pogacar has not yet won the Italian monument, and these are the two one-day races that are still lacking to complete his brilliant palmarès.

Over the past seasons Pogacar has attacked in different ways to try and win Sanremo, not yet successfully. Last spring the formula seemed perfect, but Mathieu van der Poel was able to resist his attack on the Cipressa. It is not possible again to win the race with an attack from that climb, which favours Pogacar, but makes it no easy task nevertheless. On the Poggio or the flat roads into Sanremo it is harder for the Slovenian to make the difference, which poses a significant challenge.

Recently, former winner Vincenzo Nibali has commented on the Slovenian and his pursuit of Sanremo, pointing towards a different method to obtain the win:“Perhaps his limit, if you can even call it a limit, is that he thinks he can manage everything with strength. Look at Milano-Sanremo: he tries to drop everyone on the climb, without thinking about the possibility of winning it the way I did, on the descent.”