'I think UAE have a new plan' – Here's what rival team sports directors expect from Tadej Pogačar in Milan-San Remo

How can Tadej Pogačar win Milan-San Remo? It's the question everyone in the peloton is asking themselves and each other as the hours count down to the start of the men's Milan-San Remo.

Each of the 25 teams in the peloton have a game plan and race strategy for Saturday. Each team has different hopes and ambitions, but everyone knows that Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates-XRG will shape this year's race.

Their rivals will try to put Pogačar and his team under pressure and force them to control the race, but they will then have to respond when Pogačar blows it open.

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Milan-San Remo is often decided on the last climb of the Poggio which crests with 5.5 km to go, but last year the winning trio of Mathieu van der Poel, Pogačar and Filippo Ganna escaped on the Cipressa with 22 km remaining.

A repeat of that attack on the Cipressa seems logical, but Pogačar and his team could opt for a different strategy. Before the sports director meeting in Pavia, Cyclingnews spoke to several people who will call the team tactics from their team car on Saturday.

Matteo Tosatto, the sports director for Tudor Pro Cycling, was part of the Milan-San Remo-winning teams when Alessandro Petacchi (2005) and Filippo Pozzato (2006) won the race. Tosatto will be in the black team car alongside fellow Italian sports director Claudio Cozzi, hoping Julian Alaphilippe can be near his 2019 winning form.

"I think UAE have a new plan, perhaps a different plan to last year, when they attacked on the Cipressa," Tosatto told Cyclingnews, suggesting we also ask Hauptman, who sat just ahead of him.

"Their team is very different this year; perhaps it's not as strong, but the presence of an on-form Isaac del Toro can be a big factor.

"With the different, perhaps weaker, team they have this year, and with reports that the wind along the coast is increasing, I honestly think that Pogačar won't and shouldn't attack on the Cipressa. His best strategy is to attack on the Poggio, perhaps after a high-speed lead-out from Del Toro.

"He's got one shot at winning. After 290km, if he attacks all out for 90 seconds at the right point of the Poggio, only one rider can go with him: Mathieu van der Poel.

Mathieu is the favourite for Milan-San Remo, but Pogačar has a chance if he saves his big moment for the Poggio and then goes mano-a-mano on the road to San Remo."

Movistar Team sports director Max Sciandri has raced Milan-San Remo 13 times during his long professional career, finishing on the podium in 1993, and was part of a successful attack on the Cipressa and finished fourth behind the winner Gabriele Colombo in 1996.

On Saturday, Sciandri will have the 2009 Milan-San Remo winner, Mark Cavendish, in the team car as a special guest.

"It's going to be a super fast race, it has to be fast, but the headwind is increasing, so it's not going to be easy, even for Pogačar," Sciandri told Cyclingnews.

"Milan-San Remo is such a simple race but so, so difficult to win. Pogačar and UAE have to make the race hard, make it on, on, on, almost all day.

"[Pogačar] could attack on the Cipressa like last year, but he could also wait until the Poggio and make one big attack like they used to do on the steeper second part. With one full-on attack, I think Pogačar can get away from Mathieu van der Poel."

UAE Team Emirates-XRG sports director Andrej Hauptman listened quietly as his rival sports directors talked to Cyclingnews, but was careful to reveal little about the team's game plan.

"We'll see what our tactics are…" he told Cyclingnews.

"For sure it's in our interest that there's a hard pace on the Cipressa, otherwise we don't have much chance. For sure, we'll try to be good on the Cipressa, but it's not so easy, because there's always a big fight for position. Last year our approach to the Cipressa was not perfect, so we need to get that right and as hard as possible. Then we'll see what will happen.

Asked if he was nervous or excited about Milan-San Remo, Hauptman said, "I'm nervously excited."

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