Tadej Pogačar took to the final podium at Milan-San Remo for the first time in his career on Saturday afternoon, the Slovenian ending a long, fast day in the saddle content with the end result even if he and his team’s best-laid plans didn’t fully come off.
Coming into the year’s first Monument as perhaps the top favourite for glory following an 81km solo demonstration of his powers at Strade Bianche, all eyes were on the 25-year-old superstar and UAE Team Emirates as the race hit the late hills of the three Capi, the Cipressa, and the Poggio.
As expected, the men in white hit the day’s major difficulties hard in an attempt to detach the sprinters at a race once known as ‘the sprinter’s Classic’. However, even with a greatly reduced 40-man peloton contesting the Poggio and only 12 riders leading the race down the other side, the day was still not hard enough, Pogačar reflected.
“I mean we had a plan and we stuck to it. But we missed a little bit – just like maybe 10% – on the Cipressa and after. So, in the end, the team had to wait too long on the Poggio so it was not too hard,” he told reporters after sprinting to third place behind Jasper Philipsen and Michael Matthews in what turned out to be the quickest-ever edition.
“I tried two times to attack – I had incredible legs – but this year was not hard enough for it to be a climber’s race. I think I did everything I could to be in third place. In this situation, I couldn’t have done much better, but it was close.”
Pogačar, who beat Mads Pedersen and Alberto Bettiol to snatch third place at the line behind the near-inseparable Philipsen and Matthews, called the day “one of the easiest races ever” despite it – at 46.133kph – being run 0.327kph quicker than the previous fastest edition.
“I think actually that today was one of the easiest races ever,” he said. “We rode a really, super-easy tempo the first few hours. But anyway, it was – like I said before the race, everything needs to be perfection. And today not everything was perfect. But yeah, we did really good, and I think the podium was the most we could do.”
“It was a really, really good plan that we executed almost to perfection. But in cycling, you almost never hit the perfect plan. We did a really great job with the team. I’m really proud of the boys and of the whole team. We did a really good job and we can be happy with the third place.”
The team had hit the front over the three small Capo climbs – the Berta, Cervo, and Mele…
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