Having completed in fourth place at Milano-Sanremo in 2023, many put Tadej Pogačar as their favorite to win the primary Monument of the season after his victory in his first race of the season at Strade Bianche a few weeks in the past.
Nonetheless, regardless of attacking twice on the Poggio after his UAE Workforce Emirates teammates drilled it on the entrance of the peloton on the ultimate two climbs, Pogačar was unable to make any actual impression on the race, as he didn’t get away within the closing kilometres.
There had been speak forward of the race that the Slovenian would assault on the Cipressa, however with so many riders nonetheless within the entrance group at that stage of the race, it might have been a tactical catastrophe to have gone on the offensive on the penultimate climb.
When he attacked for the primary time on the Poggio, he was unable to distance final yr’s winner Mathieu van der Poel, with Filippo Ganna and Alberto Bettiol additionally capable of observe the transfer.
He did get a sizeable hole along with his second assault although, as Van der Poel discovered himself out of place and unable to observe initially. He was capable of assault throughout the hole although and bridge over to the Slovenian rider with relative ease.
Pogačar did have the choice to work with the Dutchman on the descent of the ultimate climb, however determined towards it attributable to worry of dragging him to the road. When different riders joined them on the descent it was clear that Pogačar had resigned himself to attempting his luck within the dash.
After a late assault by Matteo Sobrero and the following counter-attack by Tom Pidcock was introduced again, Pogačar put himself in an excellent place for the ultimate dash, however was pressured to accept third, as he was unable to contest the victory towards Jasper Philipsen and Michael Matthews.
In a post-race interview, Pogačar gave his evaluation of the race, as he said that “we had a plan, we caught to it. We missed little bits, similar to ten p.c on Cipressa and after, so in the long run the workforce simply needed to wait too lengthy on the Poggio, so it was not too arduous and I attempted with two assaults. I had unbelievable legs, however this yr was not arduous sufficient to be a climber’s race”.
Though his third place end was an enchancment on his end result from final season, Pogačar is a winner and will likely be naturally disillusioned having not taken the victory. On his emotions relating to his end result, Pogačar stated “I did the whole lot I might. To be third place on this state of affairs, I couldn’t have achieved significantly better, nevertheless it was shut”.
This version of Milano-Sanremo was the quickest within the race’s historical past, with a median velocity of 46.1km/h over the six and 1 / 4 hours of racing. Nonetheless, Pogačar appeared unphased by this, as he stated “I don’t know, I feel right now was one of many best races ever. We rode an excellent simple tempo for the primary few hours, however as I stated earlier than the race, the whole lot must be perfection and right now the whole lot was not excellent, however we did actually good and I feel a podium was one of the best we might do”.
In a season the place he’s clearly motivated to perform large issues within the sport, Pogačar appears to be like to be in among the strongest kind we’ve got ever seen him in, as he appears to be like forward to the remainder of his Spring Classics marketing campaign and his try on the Giro-Tour double later within the yr.
It is usually clear that he has unfinished enterprise at this race and he’ll virtually definitely be again subsequent yr in an try to take that elusive victory and add it to his palmarès. For Pogačar to succeed at Milano-Sanremo, it’s clear that the race must be far more attritional than it was right now and maybe a wet version would swimsuit him higher given his adeptness at racing in chilly and moist circumstances.
