Two-time Milan-San Remo champion Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) wasn’t in the mix for a third victory on the Via Roma on Saturday afternoon, the Dutchman having been dropped on the Poggio en route to an eighth-place finish.
Four seconds up the road, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) outsprinted Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) for glory at the year’s first Monument, the pair having left Van der Poel behind on the final climb of the 298km race.
It was a disappointing result for the Alpecin-Premier Tech leader, but an understandable one after he revealed that he was also caught up in the crash which took out Pogačar as well as Wout van Aert, Biniam Girmay, and several others with 32km to run, just before the Cipressa climb.
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Nevertheless, he and Pidcock were the only riders who could live with Pogačar’s acceleration up the penultimate climb of the race.
But it was on the Poggio where the after-effects of the crash told. Pogačar attacked once again 700 metres into the 3.7km climb, and Van der Poel had no answer.
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