Saturday’s widely predicted duel between Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Tadej Pogačar on the Cipressa and the Poggio in Milan-San Remo will require many stars to align for the Slovenian to beat his Classics arch-rival, say UAE Team Emirates-XRG management. But they remain convinced it could be more than possible.
Neither Pogačar nor UAE have ever won La Primavera, with Van der Poel the principle obstacle to the Slovenian’s long-sought success in the most recent editions.
However, the squad don’t see that elusive victory is such an impossible task and neither does Mathieu van der Poel himself, who recently said that all it would take was for him to lose 1% for Pogačar to overtake him in the race.
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Furthemore, as UAE pointed out, Pogačar has been Van der Poel’s number 1 rival so many times in their career, that the Dutchman has both the confidence and the wherewithal to beat him.
“It’s very complicated to win there, he’s got the race sussed and he’s got Tadej’ number but we’ll try to do it,” lead sports manager Joxean Fernánez Matxin told Eurosport.
“He’s trained a lot on the roads of Milan-San Remo, even if he already knows them by heart – not just to study them again but because that way by actually riding the route, he gets more inspiration for Saturday.
Injuries mean two of Pogačar’s usual top San Remo teammates, Jonathan Narváez and Tim Wellens, will be absent on Saturday and that will do nothing to help UAE maintain such a high pace that is needed on the Cipressa, Gianetti recognised to Cyclism’Actu.
“Yes, of course, their…
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