For all the talk around this weekend's meeting between Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel, you'd be forgiven for imagining that there was nobody else lining up to compete on Saturday's Milan-San Remo. Or perhaps that these two heavyweights had butted noses in a boxing-style weigh-in before loosing a volley of intimidating threats.
But it is fans, pundits and – shhh – the media who have done most of the talking, while Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) has left the odd deftly-placed hint and Van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) has remained characteristically tight-lipped.
The TL;DR here is that Van der Poel is the defending champ and a big favourite, while Pogačar has won everything else already (apart from Paris-Roubaix) and rather fancies adding them both to the list.
Undoubtedly, in the roster of favourites to win in Italy on Saturday, this pair are the only ones too hot to handle. UK odds are 6/4 for Van der Poel to win, 2/1 for Pogačar – nobody else comes close.
But the bigger they are, the harder they fall, and there are a host of riders lining up ready to make that happen. The finale on San Remo's famous Via Roma often comes down to a small group sprint, leaving a far greater margin for error than, say, the long, hard climbs on which Pogačar has made his name. Victory tends to be decided by seconds, or fractions of them, and one misplaced pedal rev can mean the difference between victor and also-ran.
So let's hear it for riders like last year's runner-up Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), the in-form Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling), and former winners: Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious), Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling), Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), John Degenkolb (Picnic PostNL) and Jasper Stuyven (Soudal Quick-Step) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech). These, and plenty of others, will be queuing up to take their chance, and on their day more than capable of doing so.
If you're looking to catch the action as it happens, our How to Watch guide will be available first thing Saturday. Meanwhile, here's the start list.
Milan-San Remo 2026 start list
Decathlon CMA CGM
Jordan Labrosse
Pau Lapeira
Tobias Lund Andresen
Pierre Gautherat
Tord Gudmestad
Noa Isidore
Oliver Naesen
Alpecin-Premier Tech
Jasper Philipsen
Mathieu Van der Poel
Emiel Verstrynge
Silvan Dillier
Michael Gogl
Tim Marsman
Edward Planckaert
Bahrain Victorious
Alessandro Borgo
Damiano Caruso
Roman Ermakov
Fran Miholjević
Pau Miquel
Matej Mohorič
Edoardo Zambanini
Ineos Grenadiers
Filippo Ganna
Axel Laurance
Michał Kwiatkowski
Jack Haig
Connor Swift
Joshua Tarling
Ben Turner
Lidl-Trek
Mathias Vacek
Søren Kragh Andersen
Mads Pedersen
Andrea Bagioli
Giulio Ciccone
Matteo Sobrero
Mathias Norsgaard
Lotto Intermarché
Jenno Berckmoes
Huub Artz
Georg Zimmermann
Liam Slock
Luca Van Boven
Lorenzo Rota
Jonas Rutsch
Movistar
Orluis Aular
Jon Barrenetxea
Iván García Cortina
Filip Maciejuk
Lorenzo Milesi
Manlio Moro
Natnael Tesfatsion
NSN Cycling Team
Corbin Strong
Lewis Askey
Pier-André Côté
Krists Neilands
Nick Schultz
Dion Smith
Biniam Girmay
Soudal Quick-Step
Jasper Stuyven
Paul Magnier
Casper Pedersen
Pepijn Reinderink
Maximilian Schachmann
Laurenz Rex
Fabio Van den Bossche
Jayco-AlUla
Mauro Schmid
Alessandro Covi
Christopher Juul-Jensen
Jasha Sütterlin
Anders Foldager
Kelland O’Brien
Andrea Vendrame
Team Picnic PostNL
John Degenkolb
Matthew Dinham
Alexy Faure-Prost
Björn Koerdt
Oliver Peace
Frank Van den Broek
Robbe Dhondt
Visma-Lease a Bike
Wout Van Aert
Matteo Jorgenson
Christophe Laporte
Timo Kielich
Victor Campenaerts
Edoardo Affini
Owain Doull
UAE Team Emirates-XRG
Tadej Pogačar
Isaac Del Toro
Domen Novak
Florian Vermeersch
Jan Christen
Felix Großschartner
Brandon McNulty
XDS Astana Team
Alberto Bettiol
Guillermo Thomas Silva
Mike Teunissen
Gleb Syritsa
Davide Ballerini
Yevgeniy Fedorov
Nicolas Vinokurov
Groupama-FDJ United
Romain Grégoire
Johan Jacobs
Clément Braz Afonso
Kévin Geniets
Quentin Pacher
Clément Russo
Bastien Tronchon
EF Education-EasyPost
Mikkel Frølich Honoré
Kasper Asgreen
Madis Mihkels
Luke Lamperti
Harry Sweeny
Alastair Mackellar
Michael Valgren
Cofidis
Bryan Coquard
Álex Aranburu
Benjamin Thomas
Clément Izquierdo
Valentin Ferron
Paul Ourselin
Edoardo Zamperini
Bardiani CSF 7 Saber
Lorenzo Conforti
Filippo Turconi
Luca Colnaghi
Manuele Tarozzi
Martin Marcellusi
Luca Paletti
Marco Manenti
Team Novo Nordisk
Andrea Peron
Umberto Poli
Sam Brand
David Lozano
Antonio Polga
Hamish Armitt
Filippo Ridolfo
Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe
Primož Roglič
Mattia Cattaneo
Finn Fisher-Black
Gianni Moscon
Giulio Pellizzari
Laurence Pithie
Danny Van Poppel
Unibet Rose Rockets
Wout Poels
Hartthijs De Vries
Sergio Meris
Jelle Johannink
Tomáš Kopecký
Lukáš Kubiš
Clément Venturini
Uno-X Mobility
Søren Wærenskjold
Jonas Abrahamsen
Ådne Holter
William Blume Levy
Magnus Cort
Erik Nordsæter Resell
Anders Skaarseth
Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling
Thomas Pidcock
Xabier Mikel Azparren
Marcel Camprubí
Mark Donovan
Xandro Meurisse
Brent Van Moer
Fred Wright
Tudor Pro Cycling
Julian Alaphilippe
Jacob Eriksson
Marco Haller
Arthur Kluckers
Rick Pluimers
Florian Stork
Matteo Trentin
Polti-VisitMalta
Giovanni Lonardi
Mattia Bais
Dario Igor Bellette
Mirco Maestri
Francisco Muñoz
Andrea Pietrobon
Gabriele Raccagni
