It seems that every year there's the idea that maybe, just maybe, someone will do something before the Poggio, but such a thing has not really materialised – until now. And the rider in question? Tadej Pogačar, of course. However, it was still not enough.
UAE Team Emirates-XRG made it difficult from the bottom of the Cipressa, ultimately setting up the world champion for his inevitable attack about 25 km out. Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) was ready to react, with Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) also stuck like glue, and Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) also hanging on briefly. The Frenchman was soon dropped, though, and despite Pogačar's efforts to further reduce his baggage, he had Van der Poel and Ganna's company over the top and onto the descent.
The trio had a solid lead of around a minute at the foot of the final climb, where Pogačar wasted no time in attacking again, putting Ganna in a little trouble. By the top, both the world champion and Van der Poel had spent one or two more matches but neither could be shaken, and Ganna was only a handful of seconds behind them.
It came down to a slow-motion (at first) three-up sprint on the Via Roma, Pogačar gambling by hanging back a little. In the end, when Van der Poel launched from the front, no one could get on terms, and the Dutchman soared to his seventh Monument victory. Ganna took a remarkable second after an extraordinary amount of effort on the climbs, with Pogačar settling for third.
[race_result id=4 stage_id=0 count=10 gc=0 year=2025]
How it happened:
- The first Monument of the season got underway in miserable conditions after the start in Pavia.
- But with 289 km on the cards, and the sun-blushed coastal roads to come, it was almost guaranteed to improve so spirits seemed high in the peloton once the eight-man breakaway had established itself.
- With their gap stabilising at just under the four-minute mark before beginning slowly to fall, the eight ProTeam and underdog WorldTour riders in the breakaway raced southwards to the coast, then took a right turn in the direction of San Remo. They were: Arkéa-B&B Hotels riders Mathis Le Berre and Alessandro Verre in their special-edition jerseys to celebrate 140 years of Bianchi, along with Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto), Kirstian Sbaragli, Tommaso Nencini and Mark Stewart (Solution Tech-Vini Fantini), and Martin Marcellusi and Filippo Turconi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF- Faizanè).
- The roads gradually dried as the race passed the halfway point. Though a number of teams including Lidl-Trek, Ineos Grenadiers and Bahrain Victorious made appearances near the front, one constant was the man setting the pace in Silvan Dillier of Alpecin-Deceuninck, who is making towing the peloton at the longest Monuments something of a specialty.
- The race entered a new act on the run-in to the Tre Capi, the three short climbs bunched between 55 and 38 kilometres to go.
- On the way to the first, the 2-kilometre Capo Mele, the peloton had brought the gap down to just over 2 minutes 30 seconds.
The first of many crucial-climb run-ins that resembled a leadout. Note the heavy presence of Ineos Grenadiers which was busy once the race reached the coast, going all-in for 2023 runner-up Filippo Ganna.
- At the foot of the last of the Tre Capi, the Capo Berta, the gap had tumbled to just over a minute, and as the gradient tipped upwards, the breakaway fully dismantled, leaving Martin Marcellusi the last man standing.
- The small Italian's finish line was the foot of the Cipressa, and the peloton was determined to beat him there so as not to have any roadblocks as the first of two final climbs began.
The peloton gradually hoovered up all his former companions, leaving Marcellusi grimacing at the front of the race.
- Marcellusi did make it to the Cipressa first, but the peloton was very close on his tail, and in no time at all, he'd been swallowed up.
- There was a slight lull then, but in no time, UAE Team Emirates-XRG turned over a page in their playbook and sent Tim Wellens to work.
Many of the favourites knew they needed to keep close eyes on any UAE riders who made themselves busy at the front, Slovenian or not.
- Though Mathieu van der Poel, Filippo Ganna et al. were careful to stay close to Wellens, Pogačar seemed at first to be out of position 15-20 wheels back.
- But Jhonatan Narváez was on hand to bring the world champion into position.
Narváez offered up an armchair ride to his leader.
- Just as Pogačar was being moved up, Jasper Philipsen could be seen dropped off the back of the group, the reigning champion relinquishing any claim on his defence a few days after crashing hard at Nokere Koerse.
- At more or less the same moment, Wellens pulled off the front of the now strung-out bunch and handed over to Narváez, who lifted the pace again.
Tudor's Matteo Trentin could not hack the pace, and the gap he left took a lot of work to fill as the punchy Ecuadorian smashed the hammer down.
- What came next was inevitable. It had been for a few kilometres.
- Narváez took the thinned-out group around a corner and onto a steeper ramp, and then his job was done.
- As his South American teammate swung to the right, Pogačar launched out of the saddle and powered up the gradient at a pace few could match.
Watch as Pogačar attacks and the first three riders lined up behind him simply react, while further back, heads drop or reflexively look behind them as the sheer immensity of the test become clear.
- Ganna, Van der Poel and Grégoire were all well-positioned to follow as Pogačar pressed on. Maxim Van Gils (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was fifth in line, but the young Belgian's head dropped as he realised he couldn't respond.
- Grégoire was the first to drop away as the world champion kept the pressure on. Ganna appeared to struggle at a few points, Pogačar severely stretching the elastic with a later acceleration close to the top of the Cipressa, but the Italian was indefatigable, and the elite trio crested the climb together.
- The large and increasing chase group, which included Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike), Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), Neilson Powless (EF Education-Oatly) and Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) – the latter dangling a little off the back – was already 30 seconds in arrears by the top of the Cipressa, and the gap increased to a minute on the run-in to the Poggio.
- The efforts of Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike) reduced the group's disadvantage to around 45 seconds by the foot of the Poggio, but Pogačar was about to make another explosive effort, any real hopes of a catch all but distinguished long ago.
Pogačar launched again at the foot of the Poggio, and despite trying to put space between himself and Van der Poel, the Dutchman was quick to grab hold and hold fast. Ganna meanwhile, settled into his own consistent rhythm, only a little less searing than those up ahead.
- Ganna was dropped almost immediately, but he just had to set a consistent pace up the steady 3.6-kilometre climb and not lose too much time before the descent and flat run-in where he'd be in his element.
- Pogačar tried over and over again to jettison Van der Poel, but his predecessor as world champion was too strong. He even made his own effort close to the top, further testing Pogačar who'd done the lion's share of accelerations thus far.
He didn't have to go, Van der Poel could depend on his sprint, but he did it anyway.
- Pogačar and Van der Poel were both as unshakable as the other. They settled into the descent with about 15 seconds over Ganna and just under a minute to the bunch.
- Ganna was on a mission, though. And by the flat road that runs towards the Via Roma in San Remo, the Italian former world time trial champion was in touching distance of the leaders.
Ganna gaining.
- He made the catch just as the leaders turned the sharp left-hander with about 800 metres to go.
- The leading trio now had a dilemma on their hands. Van der Poel had the upper hand as (surely?) the fastest drag sprinter there but he didn't really want to lead the others out too soon, Ganna was fast too but running on fumes, and Pogačar knew he could sprint when needed, but would have to time it absolutely perfectly if he was to win, and he'd need luck on his side to boot.
- With just a few hundred metres to go, all three spread themselves out across the road with Pogačar gambling most by dropping back a few bike lengths, presumably hanging his bets on a slingshot off Ganna after a run-up. But Van der Poel had fresh air and no one on his tail, so when he launched his superior sprint, neither of his rivals could touch him.
Racing with an open hand, Van der Poel goes all in with almost no risk at all.
- Ganna responded, and Pogačar leapt onto the Italian's wheel, but Van der Poel's several metres of advantage was stable all the way to the line, and he roared to a fantastic victory.
Quotes of the day
It's hard to believe. I was focused on trying to get the win, but we knew that Tadej was going to be really strong. I felt really good at the end. The beginning was horrible with the rain and the cold, but when we came down to the coast I felt better and better. It is the third year in a row that we won with the team, and it is unique.
"[At the finish] I knew the other two wanted to make it a long sprint. They probably thought I would make it as short as possible, so I surprised them a bit when I saw the 300-metre sign, I launched my sprint and felt strong enough to keep it to the finish line."
Van der Poel said at the finish
Second-place Ganna put in arguably the best, most gutsy ride of the day, doggedly responding to the repeated attacks of his rivals, descending like a demon, and time trialing back into contention – all efforts that added up to a hugely memorable day out.
I tried to follow the two gods of cycling. I couldn't do anything more, those two guys have taken several years off my life. I think this is one of my best-ever performances. But what else can I do?"
Ganna said post-race
Pogačar himself cut a particularly disappointed figure on the podium, swamped by his oversized rainbow-wrapped podium jacket, more disappointed than ever with third place after putting so much into the finale.
I need to be satisfied with third place but we will come back for more next year. We did everything possible, not just me. I can be really proud about how we rode today. Every year we do better and we showed more aggression and more willpower on the Cipressa. Today we did an amazing race, I tried to finish it off, but there were two guys faster than me…"
The only other rider to follow Pogačar's first move on the Cipressa was the punchy young Frenchman Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), who despite never having raced Milan-San Remo before, knew where he needed to be and when. He nailed his first job, but, in his own words, his "legs gave out", and the 22-year-old ultimately finished in the group (30th).
I had asked my team to really put me right in front from the Cipressa in case they attacked. I was really in the right place at the right time ... I went for it without hesitating when the pace really picked up. Unfortunately, I guess it’s like the saying goes: when you get too close to the sun, you get burned, and that’s what happened to me."
Grégoire told media at the finish
Brief analysis
- There were two crucial moments that articulated the outcome of Milan-San Remo 2025: Pogačar's attack on the Cipressa, and the final sprint. The first was dependent not just on the world champion's superlative uphill acceleration, but also the positioning, or lack thereof, of many of his rivals. That meant that Wellens and Narváez were vital to the decisive moment, first stringing out the group, then taking them deep into the red to force fractures further back. If you look at the moment Narváez takes over, there's a split of several bike lengths created by struggling riders just five or six wheels back, which gives those further behind an even bigger challenge. Then when Pogačar himself goes a few moments later, the same thing happens again, creating gaps that would be hard to close even without >250 km in the legs.
- Then in the final sprint, Pogačar arguably chose the wrong wheel and/or the wrong side of the road, then depended too much on the timing of his own run-up onto Ganna's wheel, from which he presumably hoped to sling forward and into the last hundred-or-so metres with a gap in hand. His first mistake was not to sit on Van der Poel, his second was letting the Dutchman launch first from all the way over the other side of the road before activating his own slingshot.
- As for Ganna, his best chance at victory may have been to hang back a little longer before making the catch, then hit them immediately with an attack out of the wheels.
- Then again, Van der Poel would probably still have found a way to win. He'd had to do least of the three since Pogačar's first attack – and no one could really argue with that – and he had the fastest kick. Even so, this victory will go down as one of his best.
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