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Cycling Weekly

Sport

Joseph Lycett

Jasper Philipsen sprints to victory at Milano-Sanremo after late attacks in the closing kilometres

Jasper Philipsen Tadej Pogačar Tadej Pogačar Slo Michael Matthews Mads Pedersen Mathieu van der Poel Milano (Geopolitical Entity) Sanremo Poggio UAE Team Emirates

Jasper Philipsen winning Milano-Sanremo ahead of Michael Matthews and Tadej Pogačar.

After 288km and more than six hours of racing it was Jasper Philipsen who took the victory at Milano-Sanremo. The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider had been dropped on the Poggio, but managed to make his way back to the front of the race before winning the sprint to the line on the Via Roma.

His teammate and last year's winner Mathieu van der Poel chased down a late attack from Matteo Sobrero (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) to bring the race back together in the finale.

After a leadout from Lidl-Trek for Mads Pedersen, it was Philipsen who opened up his sprint in the final few hundred metres along with Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). However, the Belgian managed to hold both of them off to take the first Monument win of his career.

Philipsen’s victory marks the first by a sprinter at Milano-Sanremo since Arnaud Démare in 2016, in what was the fastest edition in the race’s history, with an average speed of 46.1km/h over 6 hours 14 minutes and 45 seconds.

After the race, Pogačar was quick to congratulate his close friend and former teammate along with Matthews, before Philipsen then thanked Van der Poel for the work that he had done for him in the final kilometre, as the team celebrated back-to-back wins at La Classicissima.

HOW IT HAPPENED

There were many teams interested in getting in the breakaway at the start of the day, with eleven riders going clear with around 271km to go. The Italian UCI ProTeams were well represented, as Corratec-Vini Fantini, Polti Kometa and VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè all had multiple riders in the front group.

Sergio Samitier (Movistar) and Romain Combaud (dsm-firmenich PostNL) were the only WorldTour representatives at the head of the race. Lorenzo Germani (Groupama-FDJ) also made the original group, but he was recalled to the peloton by his team around 20km later.

The breakaway was never really allowed much of a gap by the peloton though, with their advantage never going above three minutes, as teams such as Alpecin-Deceuninck and Lidl-Trek decided to set the tempo early on in the peloton.

This is a fairly recent phenomenon in professional road racing, which has been seen more and more over the last few seasons, as it is rare that we have seen such a small advantage given to the breakaway in past editions of Milano-Sanremo.

As tends to be the case in most years at Milano-Sanremo though, it was a rather uneventful first 100km of the race before they reached the Passo del Turchino, which at 25.8km in length was by far the longest climb of the day.

When the breakaway reached the foot of the ascent, they had just under three minutes of an advantage over the peloton. However, that was reduced to below two minutes by the summit.

Over the top of the climb, the riders caught a glimpse of the sea for the first time in the race, with teams in the peloton beginning to jostle for position before going onto the descent towards the coast.

As they entered the final 100km of the race, the gap to the breakaway began to stabilise and even began to go out a bit, with the riders beginning the charge along the coast towards the Tre Capi.

After five hours of racing, the riders had averaged 45.7km/h and many thought that we could see the fastest Milano-Sanremo in history, with the record sitting at 45.8km/h, which was set by Gianni Bugno in 1990.

The fight for position in the peloton had begun as they reached the first of the Tre Capi, the Capo Mele, as teams such as Bora-Hansgrohe, Lotto Dstny, Visma-Lease a Bike and dsm-firmenich PostNL had all come to the fore.

On the slopes of the climb, UAE Team Emirates came to the front of the main group for the first time in the race, as Tadej Pogačar sat in the wheel of his teammates, with Mathieu van der Poel also moving himself up in the peloton.

On the Capo Cervo and the Capo Berta, the breakaway began to fracture under the pace of the three Polti Kometa riders, as Davide Baldaccini (Corratec-Vini Fantini) was distanced from the front group.

Behind them in the peloton, the pace set by Pogačar’s team began to take its toll, as the likes of Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X) were dropped. A small crash also saw a few riders go down after there was a ripple effect in the middle of the group.

At the foot of the Cipressa, the breakaway’s gap had dropped to under a minute for the first time since they had gone clear at the start, as it began to fracture more and more at the head of the race.

Despite looking somewhat isolated at the bottom of the climb, Pogačar’s teammates quickly brought him back to the front of the peloton, as 20-year-old Isaac del Toro set the pace in the group in the first Monument of his career, bringing the gap to the breakaway to under 20 seconds.

After the young Mexican rider had finished his turn, it was up to Tim Wellens who to do the pacing, with only two riders left in the group for UAE Team Emirates.

As they went over the top of the climb, Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) led the group on the descent and just as he was about to catch the breakaway, there was a crash at the front involving Samitier and Andrea Pietrobon (Polti Kometa).

Back onto the coastal road after the descent, Davide Bais (Polti Kometa), who had been part of the early breakaway, took advantage of a lull in the pace and attacked off the front once again.

With 2km to go until the foot of the Poggio, a large group of riders who had been dropped on the Cipressa rejoined the peloton and Bais was caught for a second time as the pace went up even more at the front.

As they took the right turn onto the Poggio, it was Tudor Pro Cycling setting the pace for Matteo Trentin, as they timed their move to perfection, with UAE Team Emirates, Ineos Grenadiers and Lidl-Trek all in their wheel.

Wellens then did a ferocious leadout for Pogačar, causing a split in the group, before the Slovenian then launched his inevitable attack with Mathieu van der Poel immediately jumping on his wheel.

Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) were also able to follow, as Pogačar then went again and got a gap. Van der Poel then found himself out of position and had to attack across the gap, making his way onto the wheel before they began the descent.

Tom Pidcock was also chasing behind, using his descending skill to catch the two out front. They then looked at each other, with none of them willing to cooperate to extend their lead, as Mads Pedersen and Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) caught back on, along with a group containing the likes of Jasper Philipsen, Michael Matthews and Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step).

Matteo Sobrero then launched an attack inside 1.3km to go, as the riders behind looked around with none of them willing to chase. Pidcock then put in an all-or-nothing attack to bridge across to the Italian, before counter-attacking over the top of him as they went onto the Via Roma.

However, he was unable to hang on, as Stuyven did his final leadout for Pedersen, but the Dane did not have the legs to contest the finish. Philipsen and Matthews then opened up their sprint on the other side of the road, with the Belgian beating the Australian on the line to take the victory.

Pogačar was forced to settle for third place in the end, going one better than he did at last year’s race, whilst Pedersen, Bettiol and Mohorič just could not match the sprint of the two fast men.