After breaking via the elusive nine-minute barrier up the Cipressa climb in Milan-San Remo, race winner Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and key animator Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) have quipped about going even sooner subsequent season.
For years, the file 9:17 ascent set by Alexandre Gotchenkov and Gabriele Colombo again in 1996 withstood the check of time and steady assaults in current seasons by Pogačar and his UAE squad.
However, in 2025, it lastly fell, with the world champion launching 3km from the highest of the 5.6km climb after an explosive lead-out by Tim Wellens and Jhonatan Narváez, earlier than holding the excessive tempo to set a brand new benchmark of 8:59, revealed on his Strava.
Van der Poel was in a position to comply with within the wheel all through the violent assault and would have set the same time, with Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) shut behind and in addition involved excessive to file a time of 9:01 on his Strava over the Cipressa.
It would grow to be the race-winning transfer at La Primavera, with Pogačar failing to interrupt Van der Poel’s resolve once more on the Poggio earlier than the three males sprinted it out for victory on the Via Roma after Ganna chased again on within the closing kilometre. Van der Poel took victory however Pogačar’s distinctive try will reside on in biking followers’ reminiscences for a very long time.
“Congrats Mathieu van der Poel and Filippo Ganna. Glad to share the rostrum with such legends, however don’t be fooled, I shall be again for extra with a tremendous crew who did an excellent job conserving me protected, main me out, altering my garments and feeding me,” mirrored Pogačar on his Instagram, earlier than Van der Poel jokingly responded.
“Next yr Cipressa underneath 8min?” commented the Dutchman, with Pogačar enjoying as much as the tongue-in-cheek suggestion: “I’m analysing proper now, we are able to go a bit sooner. Like 59s,” stated the world champion.
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The remainder of the peloton crumbled underneath the stress of Pogačar lighting issues up for a fast 8:59 ascent, with Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ), who initially held onto the again of the trio of protagonists up the Cipressa earlier than getting dropped, admitting to Eurosport post-race: “When you get just a little too near the solar, you get burned, that is what occurred to me.”
Second-place finisher Ganna additionally acquired concerned within the Instagram dialogue, encouraging his colleagues to take it simple.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, we are able to chat about this…” he stated, a day after considered one of his hardest ever days on the bike chasing “two gods of biking”, in an effort the place he “could not do something extra, these two guys have taken a number of years off my life.”
While they joked concerning the eight-minute mark, Pogačar and UAE will take confidence going ahead in how their Cipressa plan did not unfold precisely as they wished, regardless of Pogačar attacking on the deliberate second and the three-man group enjoying out the finale.
UAE’s Milan-San Remo behind-the-scenes video, launched on their YouTube channel on Monday morning, confirmed that Isaac del Toro was meant to be the final lead-out man for Pogačar earlier than he exploded away.
Such was the character of the livid combat into the foot of the climb, and with a crash holding up some riders, Pogačar wasn’t ideally positioned and needed to transfer as much as the entrance from round fifteenth place with Narváez, earlier than the Ecuadorian champion did the ultimate lead-out.
There’s unlikely to be an eight-minute ascent any time quickly however UAE will definitely assume they might execute their Cipressa plan higher than they managed in 2025, and which may be what it takes for Pogačar to distance the likes of Van der Poel and at last win Milan-San Remo.