The organisers of Tirreno-Adriatico designed stage 4 to replicate the racing of Milan-San Remo, and Mathieu van der Poel showed he is ready for this year's La Classicissima with a tactical masterclass of monument racing to Martinsicuro.
The Alpecin-Premier Tech leader had the legs to join the decisive selection, then rode a tactical perfect race, even taking advantage of Wout van Aert's generosity and other riders' weaker tactical options before unleashing a 280 metre sprint along the Adriatic seafront as if he was sprinting in San Remo's Via Roma finish.
While Van Aert, Filippo Ganna, Tobias Johnanessen and others floundered behind him, Van der Poel had time to sit up, point a finger to the sky and celebrate his second emphatic stage victory in four days of racing.
Milan-San Remo is just over two weeks away on March 21, the Tour of Flanders is a week later on April 5, and Paris-Roubaix is exactly a month away on April 12. Van der Poel seems perfectly on track for another spring Classics peak.
"I think I'm ready, especially after this week, Milan-San Remo should be fun…" he said in the post-race press conference, insisting he is not obsessed with the race.
"It's not that I think about it every day, but of course it's one of the main goals every year of my season.
"It's a very special race, a very difficult one to win as well. I was lucky enough to win it twice already, and I would love to win a third time."
Van der Poel follows a unique road to Milan-San Remo and the Classics. He won an eighth cyclocross world title in early February, rewarded himself with a few days of golf and skiing and then trained intensely for three weeks, with a spell at the Syncrosfera altitude hotel in Spain.
He rode and won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, almost as a shakedown of his winter work, skipped Strade Bianche but travelled to Italy, with Tirreno-Adriatico designed to give him a weeklong block of intense racing. Stage victories boost his morale, motivate his teammates, and perhaps scare his rivals.
"Riding Tirreno-Adriatico has proven to be a successful recipe for me to prepare the Classics, and I have the feeling we're on the right way again. I'm confident that this was the right choice to be here," he said.
"These are the kind of intervals and race stimulations I need for my best shape. It just gives you the extra hardness that you only get in races when you are going all out to try and win."
Van der Poel followed the proven Flemish race tactic analogy of licking his rival's plate clean before starting on his own food, using his rivals to chase the late attacks by Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and even Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) inside the final kilometres.
"It's always difficult for me to be in a group like this, other riders are watching me. I had to try and take my chances in the sprint, and that's what I did," he said modestly.
"I made the right decisions at the right moment, and I had the legs to finish it off."
