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 – between 50km and 30km out, shedding riders including Christophe Laporte and Alexander Kristoff from the peloton, before coming to the fore once again on the Cipressa.
There, Alessandro Covi and Isaac Del Toro put in tremendous turns of pace to thin out the peloton further still, causing splits partway up before last man Tim Wellens took over and the pace slowed.
The Belgian was back on the Poggio, though not from the very start. Even so, his pacemaking was enough to detonate the already blitzed peloton, to leave just a selected few at the front for Pogačar to dispense with.
His promised lightning attacks did come, but he couldn't get clear by the top, and would eventually have to please himself with a podium step two lower than he had dreamed about.
"In the last years, because we changed the way of racing, everybody expects this and everybody's really prepared to suffer on the Cipressa and be good on the Poggio, so the plan always to come to perfection was to come solo.
"I think even if Mathieu van der Poel would push on the descent, that all the guys behind us are more or less the same experts on the downhill, especially on the Poggio. Everybody knows this descent well and it's hard to make any gaps.
"As a team, we changed this race a little bit in the last four years and we're trying to make it work. When you bring something new to a race, it's hard to execute it, especially in this kind of race, but every year we put a little bit more work into it a little bit more percent falls into place. I think in the next years we can do even better."
Pogačar, once again edging closer to adding a fourth Monument win to his five titles at the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and Il Lombardia, could at least console himself with the fact that he was competing among friends, he concluded.
"A friend wins, a friend is second, a friend is fourth, a friend is fifth. It's a good group in the final!" he said. "I must say it feels really, really good to race against such guys and friends.
"In the cycling community and professionals, we can be really happy that we have such a group of riders. I can feel more respect in the group and more people are friends with each other.
"So, it feels like a friendly race but still going for gas so today I must say that I was enjoying the race. It was not too aggressive from anyone and it's good to see cycling like this."
