World Champion 3rd after lighting up race on Cipressa
Saturday 22 March, 2025
Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates-XRG ripped up the script at Milano-San Remo today, with the team attacking the race on the Cipressa climb with -24km to finish to take 3rd place on the Via Roma behind winner Mathieu Van Der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and third place Filippo Ganna (Ineos-Grenadiers).
After 289 kilometers of intense racing, the 116th edition of Milan-San Remo came down to a thrilling three-way showdown between Pogačar, Van der Poel and Ganna with the Dutchman clinching victory in a dramatic sprint finale.
The race exploded into action on the slopes of the Cipressa, where Tim Wellens began to set a brutal pace, which was followed-up by a hard and selfless pull by Jhonatan Narvaez. This would soften things up perfectly for Pogacar and his planned attack with only Ganna and Van der Poel able to follow the Slovenian. The trio then worked together to maintain their lead, staying away until the foot of the Poggio, when Pogačar launched another attack.
The move was enough to drop Ganna, but Van der Poel stayed glued to Pogačar’s wheel on the Slovenian’s favoured terrain, finally putting in an attack of his own in the closing kilometre of the climb. The two riders were neck-and-neck as they descended the winding road toward San Remo, as the probability of a sprint finale begin to look a certainty.
As the tactical standoff began, Ganna bridged back to the leaders, with Van der Poel leading out from the front. With a powerful kick, he held off both Pogačar and Ganna, taking his second Milan-San Remo victory.
Ganna managed to fend off Pogačar for second place, with the World Champion finishing third after a valiant effort from him and his team.
Pogačar : “We stuck to the plan today and did a perfect job. The team was really amazing to set up the attack. I did my best and attacked hard on the Cipressa. It would have been really optimistic to go alone from there so I was glad to have two strong guys like Mathieu and Ganna. They were both really strong today and we had good collaboration.
We all started sprinting with 300m to go. I think we all had the same idea with the tailwind and the slight downhill. Van Der Poel was the strongest so chapeau to him. It was a nice edition of the race, we gave it all. One year I hope I can pull it off. Today I need to be satisfied with third but we’ll be back next year for more.”
Results
1.Mathieu Van Der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 6:22:53
2.Filippo Ganna (Ineos-Grenadiers) s.t
3.Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) s.t
