Wout van Aert: "I prefer going down fighting"

Wout van Aert started Milano-Sanremo as one of the big favourites and Jumbo-Visma gave him almost perfect support throughout the race. Christophe Laporte and Primoz Roglic were there at crucial times for van Aert who managed to enter the final kilometers of the race in prime position, however his sprinting ability saw his rivals target him, ending up costing another strong result for the Belgian.

“I wasted a lot of energy on Pogacar’s attacks, that’s why I didn’t manage to be with him when Mohoric attacked. I knew he was dangerous," van Aert said after the finish. Jumbo-Visma worked all day long to control the breakaway and had van Aert well positioned in all crucial moments of the race. With a hard race, things looked perfect for the Belgian as he managed to control all the attacks over the Poggio di Sanremo and also had a very small group following.

However, when Matej Mohoric got a gap in the final descent, he was unable to respond. Despite chasing hard in the run-up to the line, there was no good collaboration in the group, and having spent a lot of energy chasing the Slovenian he ended up diving down into eighth spot, last in the chasing group.

"You can’t give him [Mohoric] ten meters because he’ll be gone. I chased him to win. Maybe others were already busy trying to get a podium place. They have every right to do so, of course. I don’t think we should have handled the race differently. I am pleased with the work the team did today. If I can’t win, I prefer going down fighting. I think that’s what happened”, the Belgian champion concluded.

With the cobbled classics just ahead van Aert will have more opportunities to strike big wins, however his disappointment at the end of yesterday's race was visible, specially as he avoided illness like many other pre-race favourites and came in with great form into the race.