Mathieu van der Poel emulates his grandfather with stunning Milano-San Remo victory from Filippo Ganna and Wout van Aert
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Updated 18/03/2023 at 17:01 GMT
Mathieu van der Poel took a stunning victory in the first Monument of the year as to win Milano-San Remo for the first time in his career. A devastating attack on the famous Poggio climb proved to be the decisive moment of the race as the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider beat Filippo Ganna, who was second, Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogacar in a high-quality race.
Watch Van der Poel emulate his grandfather by winning Milano-San Remo for the first time
Sixty-two years after his grandfather Raymond Poulidor won Milano-San Remo, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) put in a pulverising performance to win the first Monument of the season in style on the via Roma.
The Dutchman attacked from a stellar leading quartet near the top of the Poggio to open up a small but decisive gap over Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), Belgium’s Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Italy’s Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers).
Van der Poel’s advantage was only a few seconds – but that was all it took as he put in a textbook descent and then increased his lead on the home straight to become the fourth Dutchman to win La Classicissima after Arie Den Hartog, Jan Raas and Hennie Kuiper.
Ganna powered clear to take second place ahead of Van Aert and Pogacar as the chasers came home 15 seconds behind the lone victor, whose team-mate Soren Kragh Andersen took fifth place ahead of Danish compatriot Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) to complete a perfect day for Alpecin-Deceuninck.
“I cannot imagine a better scenario than this one,” Van der Poel said after adding another Monument to his swelling palmares, after two earlier victories in the Tour of Flanders. “I already told the team that there was a headwind on Cipressa so it was not as hard as previous years. But I already felt that my legs were still fresh.
"I knew I wanted to place an attack at the end of the Poggio and I managed to find a small gap between Pogacar and the wall. This is one of the races I really wanted to win. The way I won it today, I think it’s beyond expectation – I’m really happy.”
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‘I cannot imagine a better scenario than this one’ – Van der Poel reacts to Milano-San Remo win
Asked whether the win was all the more special for following in his grandfather’s footsteps, Van der Poel said: “For sure. It’s special not only because he won it, but because it’s a Monument and it’s one that every rider wants to win. I was really focused on this race since I started training again after the cyclo-cross worlds. I needed some race days at Tirreno-Adriatico to get to my best level and, today, this was my best level I think.”
Defending champion Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Victorious) finished in the second chase group 26 seconds down to take eighth place behind American Nielson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) and ahead of Frenchman Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) and the 2021 champion Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) of Belgium.
How Dutchman Van der Poel came up trumps
An attack shortly after kilometre zero at the new race start in Abiattegrasso just west of Milan saw two Italians – Mirco Maestri (EOLO-Kometa) and Alessandro Tonelli (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizane) – zip clear of the pack under blue skies in northern Italy.
The day’s break soon swelled to nine-strong with the arrival of Alexandr Riabushenko (Astana-Qazaqstan), Samuele Rivi (EOLO-Kometa), Filippo Magli (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizane), Negasi Haylu Abrega (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Alexandre Balmer and Jan Maas (Jayco-AlUlA) and Alois Charrin (Tudor Pro Cycling).
The advantage of the nine escapees never grew much beyond the three-minute mark as Jos van Emden (Jumbo-Visma) and Jacopo Mosca (Trek-Segafredo) combined for a long stint on the front of the peloton, paving the way for their leaders Van Aert and Pedersen respectively.
Little happened for the first half of the race until a touch of wheels on the Passo del Turchino produced the first flashpoint when the 2019 winner Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step) was one of half a dozen riders held back.
The French former world champion put in a full-throttle descent to rejoin the back of the peloton before the Ligurian coast, with Trek having reduced the gap to just 90 seconds after the Turchino.
As usual, the arrival of the Tre Capi climbs heralded the start of the end for so many riders’ chances – and that was the case for the veteran British champion Mark Cavendish, the 2009 winner, who was shelled out the back for Astana-Qazaqstan on the third of the hills, the Capo Berta, just as the breakaway was swept up.
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Cavendish dropped from peloton as Milano-San Remo heats up
Ireland’s Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) hit the deck in a nasty fall before another pure sprinter in Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) was among those distanced on the Cipressa climb inside the final 30km after UAE Team Emirates set a hefty tempo for their leader Pogacar.
On the descent Van der Poel pushed clear alongside team-mate Kragh Andersen and Italy’s Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates). But the trio’s brief cameo off the front soon came to nothing and was followed by an even briefer cameo from Germany’s Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe) on the flat run-in towards the Poggio.
It was on the final climb of the interminable 294km race that Bahrain-Victorious came to the front to pave the way for defending champion Mohoric. But halfway up the climb things were turned on their head by Belgium’s Tim Wellens who put in a large pull for UAE team-mate Pogacar.
An inevitable split soon formed with eight riders going clear before the select quartet of Van der Poel, Pogacar, Van Aert and Ganna formed near the top of the infamous climb. But instead of waiting for the descent to make his move, Dutchman Van der Poel took the initiative with a last-ditch dig for which Pogacar had no answer.
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Highlights: Van der Poel storms to Milano-San Remo victory
The gap was small over the top but Van der Poel had enough left in the tank to keep his chasers at bay and become the first Dutchman since 1985 to win La Primavera. Third in 2022, Van der Poel went two places better as he added Milano-San Remo to his Monument wins alongside his two previous victories in Flanders.
It was a day of frustration for Soudal-QuickStep who placed no rider in the top 10 with Alaphilippe crossing the line for 11th place ahead of team-mate Davide Ballerini.
Italian powerhouse Ganna – who led for Ineos Grenadiers after Britain’s Tom Pidcock was ruled out with concussion – gave the home fans something to cheer as he crossed the line for second place. But his shake of the head was no doubt as much a sign of regret as it was a concession that the best man won.
With the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix next up, Van der Poel will be the man to beat over the cobbles in this kind of form.
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