In an edition for the ages, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won his second Milan-San Remo title, outsprinting Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) after the trio had broken away from the peloton on the race’s penultimate climb of the Cipressa.
That initial break had been forged by an acceleration from Pogačar that only van der Poel, Ganna and young Frenchman Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) were able to follow. Although Grégoire soon yielded to Pogačar’s fearsome tempo, van der Poel hung tight to his wheel, while Ganna kept fighting his way back up to his two rivals despite being dropped by them on the Cipressa and the final climb of the Poggio.
A dozen seconds behind the two pace-setters coming off that climb, the Italian bridged up them with 500 metres remaining. After turning into the home straight, van der Poel went wide to the left, Ganna stayed to the right, while Pogačar sat a little off them, waiting to make his final move.
The world champion never got the chance to do so, however. Suspecting that his two rivals would be thinking he’d want a short sprint, van der Poel went from the front with 350 metres to the line. His powerful burst gave him the daylight he needed on Ganna, while Pogačar was too far back to threaten and finished a dejected-looking third.
HOW IT happened
A breakaway group of eight came together in the opening 20km. It was initiated by Alessandro Verre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Martin Marcellusi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) and Tommaso Nencini (Team Solution Tech-Vini Fantini), who were quickly joined by Mathis Le Berre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto), Mark Stewart (Team Solution Tech-Vini Fantini) and Filippo Turconi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè). Kristian Sbaragli then bridged up to give Team Solution Tech three riders up front.
Their lead rapidly grew to almost six minutes before the peloton reacted, cutting it back to around four, the eight leaders managing to hold this advantage until the peloton’s pace begin to pick up nearing the three capi, the headlands that are the starting gate for the race’s key action. On the first of them, the Capo Mele, the break’s advantage had been trimmed to two-and-a-half minutes. By the third, the Capo Berta, they had little more than a minute.
As the peloton closed in, Marcellusi made a lone sortie from the break, managing to stay clear until the turn onto the Cipressa, where UAE’s Tim Wellens went to the front and pushed up the pace. When Wellens was done, teammate Jhonotan Narváez replaced him, with Pogačar right on his wheel, ready to attack.
As the breeze switched to a tailwind rounding a hairpin, Pogačar accelerated away. Ganna chased him, followed by van der Poel and, briefly, Grégoire. Ganna was at his limit too, but the Italian managed to keep his place at the front after yo-yoing on a couple of occasions.
Having crossed the Cipressa with a lead of 32 seconds on a group of 17 riders, the leading three came off that hill with 50 seconds in hand on the chasers. They kept their collaboration going along the coast road and reached the foot of the Poggio with an advantage of 45 seconds.
Pogačar attacked right at the bottom, Ganna losing ground once again. But the UAE team leader couldn’t shake van der Poel from his wheel. When Ganna almost got back up them, Pogačar went again, then a third time, then a fourth. Van der Poel then decided the best form of defence was to make an attack of his own. The Dutchman accelerated 500m from the summit of the Poggio, Pogačar scrambling to stay in touch.
They topped the climb with a lead of a dozen seconds on Ganna, who closed to just eight coming off the climb and into the streets of San Remo. Drawing on all of his time trialling power, the Ineos rider gradually closed in. But van der Poel had his two rivals exactly where he wanted them. Knowing he would likely emerge as the quickest in the sprint, he didn’t waste any time proving that.
Milan-San Remo 2025, 289km
1. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Deceuninck, in 6:22:53
2. Filippo Ganna (Ita) Ineos Grenadiers, s.t
3. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, s.t.
4. Michael Matthews (Aus) Jayco-AlUla, +43 seconds
5. Kaden Groves (Aus) Alpecin-Deceuninck, s.t.
6. Magnus Cort (Den) Uno-X Mobility, s.t.
7. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek, s.t.
8. Olav Kooij (Ned) Visma | Lease a Bike
9. Matteo Trentin (Ita) Tudor Pro Cycling Team, s.t.
10. Fred Wright (GB) Bahrain Victorious, s.t.
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