Saturday March 16, the phenomenon Mathieu Van der Poel will attempt to repeat his feat of 2023 on the first Monument of the year, Milan-San Remo.
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After a winter in the plowing, where he won 13 times out of 14 cyclo-crosses completed, including a new rainbow jersey, Mathieu Van der Poel starts his road season directly with a prestigious classic.
Also reigning road world championthe Dutchman is aiming for a new victory over Milan-San Remo, the most unpredictable and indecipherable of the classics, the first cycling Monument of the year.
A duel with Tadej Pogacar?
At the start of this 115th edition in Pavia, south of Milan, several strong men like the Dane Mads Pedersen, the Italian Filippo Ganna, second last year, or the Frenchman Christophe Laporte are showing a good potential winner. The pure sprinters, who have not won on the Via Roma since Arnaud Démare in 2016, have not completely given up either and in the event of a mass arrival the Belgian Jasper Philipsen will be a hot candidate for first place.
But it is a duel with Tadej Pogacar which seems the most likely. The Slovenian and the Dutchman have the power necessary to dynamite the race in the Poggio, one of the hills located in the town of San Remo, a springboard to glory, four kilometers long. In 2023, Mathieu Van der Poel made the difference in the Poggio, placed 5.5 km from the goal. He was ahead of Filippo Ganna, Wout Van Aert and Tadej Pogacar on the line.
The two best classics riders in the world are also now competing for the history books, engaged in a duel that adds depth to one-day races. They are the only two active riders to have won more than two Monuments, five for the Slovenian (Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Tour of Flanders, three times the Tour of Lombardy) and four for the Dutchman (Milan-Sanremo, Paris- Roubaix, twice the Tour of Flanders).
A first double via Roma since 2001
Mathieu Van der Poel will certainly want to provide maximum effort in the Poggio to take a few seconds at the summit and consolidate their lead on the descent towards San Remo. “ I expect a similar race. It’s not a very tactical race. Everything is generally played out in the Poggio where it is the legs that speak “, he said.
Unlike last year, where he warmed up in Italy at the Strade Bianche and on Tirreno-Adriatico, the grandson of Raymond Poulidor arrives without a mark on the road. But after a long preparation in Spain, he is obviously in the running for a first double via Roma since the German Erik Zabel in 2001, and can return to Pogacar’s level by winning a fifth Monument.
An ultra-complete runner, if Pogacar wins in Italy, all he would have to do is win Paris-Roubaix, where he has never set his wheels before, to become the fourth runner in history, the first not -Belgian, to win the five Monuments, namely Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Lombardy. This rivalry between Van der Poel and Pogacar gives this Milan-San Remo a special flavor.