Milan-San Remo: Tadej Pogačar strikes in closing metres to hold off Tom Pidcock in electrifying two-rider finish and earns masterful victory

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) ticked off another Monument on his palmarès, winning Milan-San Remo at the sixth time of asking after beating Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) in a two-man sprint on the Via Roma.

The World Champion, who had crashed just 32km earlier, and the Briton proved the strongest riders in the 298km Monument, dropping two-time winner Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) early on the Poggio after the trio had escaped on the penultimate climb of the Cipressa.

Pidcock stuck with Pogačar on the remainder up the Poggio and on the descent, but it was the Slovenian who possessed the quicker sprint finish, just about getting to the line first.

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Four seconds further back, another victim of the crash, which saw Pogačar hit the deck, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) jumped out of the peloton in the final kilometre to round out the podium.

"Not the most beautiful because I will be licking the wounds. But I'm just really happy to take the win," Pogačar said after the race.

"You never know after such a long race, but I knew one thing – that Tom is a super-fast guy. He looked super good through all the race.

"I don't have much experience with one-to-one sprints, especially against him. I knew it would be tough, and it was very close, so congrats to Tom."

The action in the final began in Imperia, just before the penultimate climb of the day, the Cipressa, when Pogačar, Van Aert, and several others were caught in a crash. While Van Aert took some time to get back to the peloton, Pogačar, who suffered cuts and scrapes, managed to avoid disaster and was back in the peloton on the Cipressa.

First, Brandon McNulty and then Isaac del Toro took turns on the front before Pogačar – crash notwithstanding – made his move. Only Pidcock and Van der Poel could live with the world champion's pace up the climb, with the trio setting a new ascent record over the top to lead by 30 seconds as Lidl-Trek led the chase behind.

The trio led the race onto the Poggio, but they'd soon become two as Pogačar's acceleration dropped Van der Poel. He couldn't drop Pidcock, however, and the pair flew down the descent together.

With a cushion over the chasing peloton behind, the leading duo were left to battle over the win themselves, and Pidcock tucked in behind Pogačar for the sprint. He had prime position but not the closing speed, launching the sprint long. Pogačar was quick to respond, though, and held off Pidcock to claim victory.

How it unfolded

The peloton would tackle the longest edition of Milan-San Remo since 2021 this year, with the race featuring 298km between Pavia and San Remo.

Despite the added length – 9km up on 2025 – the route remained largely the same as usual, with the long, largely flat, run to the Passo del Turchino (5.6km at 2.9%) taking up the first half of the race.

A dive down to the Ligurian Coast followed, with a flat run west taking the peloton to the Tre Capi – the Capo Mele (1.8km at 3.6%), Capo Cervo (2.15km at 2.5%), and the Capo Berta (2km at 6%).

With those out of the way, the Cipressa (5.6km at 4.1%) at 22km to go and the Poggio (3.7km at 3.7%) posed the final tests of the race ahead of the winding descent down into San Remo and the traditional finish line on the Via Roma.

Attacks flew from the start of the race, with Alexy Faure Prost (Picnic-PostNL) and the Polti-VisitMalta duo of Dario Belletta and Mirco Maestri launching the accelerations which would kick start the breakaway.

The trio were joined out front by Movistar pair Lorenzo Milesi and Manlio Moro, another two from Bardiani CSF-7 Saber in Martin Marcellusi and Manuele Tarozzi, and two more riders from Novo Nordisk in Andrea Peron and David Lozano.

The nine riders of the break were left to race up the road without any fuss from the peloton, their advantage growing over three minutes after the hour mark.

As ever, there was little drama on the road to the Turchino, though Tadej Pogačar did suffer a blow. The Slovenian lost a teammate as Jan Christen crashed out along with Orluis Aular (Movistar) with 242km to go.

The race was run at an average of 45kph on the long drag to the Turchino, with the break being held at a gap of 2:40 on the way. Over the top of the climb, with 150km still to run, the breakaway held a four-minute advantage as Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe led the peloton.

Alpecin-Premier Tech and Pinarello-Q36.5 also joined in the work at the front, though the break was still comfortable up the road, holding a six-minute gap as they crossed the 100km to go marker.

Inside the final 60km and on the approach to the Tre Capi, it was UAE Team Emirates-XRG who took over the pacemaking, bringing the gap down to three minutes to the breakaway, which now numbered seven riders after Peron and Lozano had dropped back.

The break split up further over the three small climbs, with Moro, Marcellusi, and Tarozzi falling away first, before Faure Prost also lost contact over the Berta. That left Milesi and the Polti pair, Belletta and Maestri, out front with a one-minute lead with 38km left to run.

Before the race could reach the Cipressa, however, disaster struck for several contenders in the peloton. Tadej Pogačar was among a host of riders to fall in the city of Imperia with 32km to go.

He was joined on the deck by Visma-Lease a Bike riders Wout van Aert and Matteo Jorgenson, as well as Biniam Girmay (NSN) and Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), while Mathieu van der Poel was also caught up. However, he made it back to the peloton in time for the penultimate hill of the race.

Before long, the world champion was up in second wheel behind teammate Brandon McNulty as the pair led the way up the Cipressa, with the break having been caught just before the start of the climb.

Isaac del Toro was next to push the pace, the Mexican launching Pogačar, who made his move at 2.6km from the top with 24.2km to go left to run.

Pidcock and Van der Poel were stuck to his wheel, however, and the pair managed to hang on in the face of another Pogačar acceleration shortly afterwards. The trio enjoyed a 30-second advantage at the top of the hill, while Lidl-Trek led the chase.

With 14.5km to run, Van Aert made it back to the peloton, and so his Visma-Lease a Bike team were quickly visible at the front, too.

At the base of the Poggio, with 9.2km to run, the gap to the peloton had fallen to a reported 10 seconds after several other teams, including Lotto-Intemarché and Jayco-AlUla, had joined the pacemaking behind. Pogačar, though, was quick to make another move at the front. He put Van der Poel in trouble 700 metres into the climb, but Pidcock managed to hang with the acceleration.

Midway up, Van der Poel had lost 10 seconds as Pogačar continued to push without managing to shake Pidcock. He attacked time and again, but once again at Milan-San Remo was faced with a rider he was unable to drop. Despite a record-breaking ascent of the Poggio at 10 seconds quicker than the 2025 race, Pidcock held the wheel.

The British demon descender, predictably, took the front on the way down, while Van der Poel was brought back by the peloton, 23 seconds down.

The gap was too large for the peloton to surmount, and up front, the leading pair avoided disaster on the descent to compete for the victory among themselves. On the run-in to San Remo, first it was Pidcock leading and then, in the final kilometre, Pogačar.

Further back, a resurgent Van Aert launched himself clear of the chasing pack, his effort proving enough to hold off his podium rivals and clinch third place ahead of the closing sprint of Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek).

The pair, and the rest of the peloton, crossed the line four seconds down on the leaders, though, with Pogačar holding off Pidcock by half a wheel to secure the victory.

Results

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