Reflections from the men's Milan-San Remo – Pogačar overcomes the chaos, prefers focaccia to a 2027 return, McNulty's work, and praise for Van der Poel and Pedersen

It's difficult to encapsulate the emotions of Milan-San Remo just a few hours after the race. We witnessed one of the best-ever editions of La Primavera, and so one of the best one-day Classics ever. There is still so much to take in, so much to understand, and so much to savour.

Emotions are complex, very human, and so difficult to put into words, just like this year's Milan-San Remo. What happened during the six and a half hours of racing, and especially in the electrifying final half hour? How did Tadej Pogačar get up from his crash, chase back on, attack on the Cipressa and Poggio and then beat Tom Pidcock in the sprint?

I stayed awake until 2:00 am after the race on Saturday night, watching replays, thinking back to what I witnessed beyond the finish line chaos on the Via Roma, what riders told me and especially what Tadej Pogačar said post-race.

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Yet it feels like we've only scratched the surface and started to appreciate what we saw on Saturday. This year's Milan-San Remo is something to discuss and savour for weeks, months and years to come.

On Sunday morning, San Remo was quiet, the Via Roma was empty and soulless, just another road of shops, bars and daily Italian life. Yet the magic of Saturday still lingered in the air. We are all still drunk on the emotions of the race and looking forward to whatever comes next.

To paraphrase the Tintin meme: "What a Classics season, huh?"

"Captain, they've only raced Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo, all the cobbled Classics are still to come…"

Pogačar's crash and comeback

As Alex Roos of L'Equipe wrote in Sunday's French sports paper, which had the Tadej Pogačar and Tom Pidcock Via Roma sprint on the front page: "There is nothing more beautiful than what is imperfect, what goes awry, the unexpected, and Tadej Pogačar won the greatest challenge of his career on Saturday after a completely chaotic scenario.

"He demonstrated that no matter how much cycling modernises, no matter how much it bombards us with its watts and kilojoules, it will never be anything without instinct, without that extra something."

That chaos, the unexpected, the way Pogačar, the usual dominant force in cycling, came back from adversity to win Milan-San Remo, is what made it a race for the ages.

Pogačar was close to climbing off or rolling into San Remo along the coast road after his crash.

Then the adrenaline kicked in, his natural determination cancelled the pain, and his teammates were on hand to lead him back to the peloton and to the front on the climb of the Cipressa, inspiring arguably the greatest performance of his career.

"I think it's definitely one of the biggest wins in my career," Pogačar said.

"I need to sleep it off a little bit. I don't know much about what happened in the final. It just was all out. I still need a moment to realise that we won Milan-San Remo."

Never race Milan-San Remo again Tadej, please race Milan-San Remo ever year Tadej

Pogačar joked to Cyclingnews that he only wants to return to San Remo to eat Focaccia, not race and train on the Cipressa and Poggio and the Ligurian roads packed with Italian traffic that he described as 'criminal'.

Having now won Milan-San Remo, Pogačar could decide to never return, never have to focus his winter on training for a Cipressa attack and risk his neck in the Ligurian traffic.

He has shaken off the pressure and speculation that he could never win Milan-San Remo, and ended the obsession that risked driving even Pogačar crazy.

"This race costs a lot of effort, also mentally. It's one of the most unpredictable races I've ever done. I think it is one of the most unpredictable races in the world," he admitted.

Never riding Milan-San Remo again would turn his 2026 victory into a mic-drop moment. But it would be a tragedy for us. After what we saw on Saturday, we can only hope that he returns again and again, to challenge the chaos of Milan-San Remo and give us the thrill of the best half an hour of bike racing of the year.

We want a race like that every year, where Pogačar is forced to give his all to win against the odds, elevating his own determination and the performance of his rivals

McNulty shows his maturity with Cipressa performance

American racer Brandon McNulty was happy and emotional beyond the Milan-San Remo finish line, knowing he had played a vital part in Pogačar's victory.

McNulty was making his Milan-San Remo debut, replacing injured Tim Wellens and Jhonatan Narváez. UAE Team Emirates-XRG needed him to play a vital role, especially after Jan Christen crashed out early, and McNulty stepped up without fear.

When Pogačar crashed on the approach to the Cipressa, McNulty followed team orders to wait for him at the back of the peloton and then drag him up to the front on the early part of the Cipressa.

McNulty used his power to move past most of the peloton in less than a kilometre, dropping off Pogačar like an experienced leadout man. He could have then eased up, job done. Instead, he went to the front and lined out the peloton with a huge, long surge. Isaac del Toro was behind, with Pogačar in place, ready to attack.

McNulty played a role in transforming chaos into race control.

"We came back just at the bottom of the Cipressa, I went as hard as I could to get to the front and then I didn't see in the front, but I could hear on the radio that it was crazy," McNulty said of his work and how he heard Pogačar's victory play out ahead of him.

Pogačar later hugged McNulty with genuine emotion and gratitude, their relationship stronger than ever after Pogačar helped McNulty win the GP de Montréal.

"It's always an honour to ride for him. It was definitely nice to repay him," McNulty said.

Praise for Mathieu van der Poel and Mads Pedersen

While Pogačar and his UAE team celebrated in the Via Roma, the defeated were hit by the pain of the race and of disappointment. Mathieu van der Poel and Mads Pedersen could especially be proud, however.

I watched the final kilometres near Van der Poel's entourage, his father Adri glued to a mobile phone, his mother pacing around like in a prison cell of fear, unable to watch her son suffer and waiting for it all to end.

Van der Poel stopped near them in the Via Roma, but there was no celebration like in 2023 and 2025, just blood on his hand, growing pain and disappointment. Van der Poel was hit by a bike in the crash and raced the finale with Pogačar in pain, pèrhaps even with a fractured finger.

He was cruelly distanced on the Poggio and then caught by the chasers, but somehow finished eighth and so fifth in the 35-rider group that came in just four seconds down on Pogačar. He was defeated but could be proud of his race and will surely be back to his best on the cobbles.

Mads Pedersen finished fourth but was rightly proud of his day. It was only his second race of the season after crashing out of the Volta Comunitat Valenciana, where he fractured his right collarbone and left wrist, but he fought all the way to the line with his Lidl-Trek teammates.

They inspired the chase group along the Auralia coast road, reducing the lead of Pogačar, Pidcock and van der Poel to just ten seconds before the Poggio.

"That's racing," Pedersen told Eurosport at the finish. "It's, of course, nice to be back, better than expected, so it was a good day. It was a pity I couldn't take the podium, but it is what it is."

Next up for Pogačar – the cobbles, the Ardennes and a fifth Tour de France

Tadej Pogačar understandably wanted to savour his Milan-San Remo victory but will soon head north to Belgium for the Tour of Flanders, then to France for Paris-Roubaix.

After that comes a trip to the hills for the Ardennes Classics and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, a race he's won three times previously, as he chases more Monument victories.

Let's not forget that he can also win a record-equallying fifth Tour de France in July.

Pogačar was the first world champion to win Milan-San Remo in the rainbow jersey since Beppe Saronni in 1983. In the weeks to come, he can make more cycling history by winning Paris-Roubaix and so completing his collection of the sports Monuments. Only Eddy Merckx has won more Monuments (19 to Pogačar's 11), but he has time on his side to rewrite even that record.

For now, Pogačar is just happy to have won Milan-San Remo.

"I'm just so happy now that whatever comes next is fine, I will not beat my head or anything," he said.

"Of course, the shape is good, and I will go to Flanders and Roubaix with a strong team. And we go for the win in both races. I'm looking forward to Flanders and Roubaix now."

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