Fastest-ever Milan-San Remo too ‘easy’ for Pogačar to get his win

After setting a record time up the Poggio, Milan-San Remo’s iconic penultimate climb, Tadej Pogačar said the race wasn’t hard enough for him to win.

“Today was one of the easiest races ever,” the two-time Tour de France champion told media after finishing third in La Primavera. The UAE-Emerates’ team had tried to make the 288km race harder but, despite setting the fastest average speed ever for Milan-San Remo at around 46 km/hr, didn’t succeed in making it hard enough for Pogačar to escape the field.

“We had a plan and we executed it,” Pogačar said after the race. “But we missed ten per cent on the Cipressa and beyond. As a result, we could not make the climb of the Poggio difficult enough.”

With some help from Lidl-Trek, tehn Ineos, UAE-Emirates did try push the pace up Poggio. Pogačar launched a first attack with 900m remaining in the iconic climb. That was matched by van der Poel, Filippo Ganna and Alberto Bettiol. More riders joined the leaders before Pogačar again tried to set off solo near the summit. Van der Poel chased and caught the Slovenian before leading out his teammate for the win.

While Pogačar said in the post-race interviews he had the legs, UAE’s strategy didn’t work out to set up the right conditions for the climber to win the Monument.

“As I said before the match: everything has to be perfect for me to win here,” Pogačar said. “That wasn’t the case today, so I have to settle for this.”

Fastest-ever Poggio

Despite being too “easy,” Saturday’s Monument was raced at record pace. Not only the fastest overall speed for the winner, but a new fastest time up Poggio. Pogačar, first over the top, averaged 39 km/hr up the famous MSR ascent. The fastest it’s ever been raced, sure. But still “not hard enough” according to the champ.

To make his point clear, the Tour champion titled his race “Easy spin with some friends” on Strava. Not exactly how we’d describe six hours of racing. But at least he had more fun than Ganna, who simply titled his ride with a series of angry emoji…