The organizers of the 115th edition of Milan-San Remo, the first Monument of the season, may have cut back on a historic distance of around 300 kilometers to reduce it to 288 kilometers, but nothing has really changed over the years in terms of to the progress of this legendary day but also to the final outcome of the race.
As is tradition, after a long breakaway made up this year of ten valiant new riders, things logically returned to order when approaching the Cipressa, the penultimate difficulty of the day located around thirty kilometers from the goal.
Pogacar sets fire, Alpecin lands on his feet
Everything then panicked under the leadership of the UAE Team Emirates as they approached the Poggio, an embankment that is often decisive on the Primavera. However, this time, no one was able to make the difference at the strategic location of the race.
45.99 km/h
This edition of Milan-San Remo is the fastest in history (45.99 km/h on average). The previous record dated from 1990 (45.81 km/h)
Certainly, as expected, Tadej Pogacar set fire twice on the climb to Poggio, including a final salvo sent 200 meters from the summit. Vigilant, Mathieu van der Poel, outgoing winner, rushed into the wheels, allowing the twenty or so pursuers to return to the front of the race for an inevitable sprint, not necessarily consistent with the expected scenario this year.
Because at the end of the straight line of Via Roma, after successive attempts by Matej Mohoric (Barhain-Victorious), Matteo Sobrero (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), the Belgian Jasper Philipsen, teammate of the favorite Van der Poel, settled the sprint of the thin leading group, ahead of the Australian Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) and the enterprising but poorly rewarded Pogacar.
27
Belgium is the nation that has won the greatest number of Monuments in the 21st century (27 in total)
