Milan-San Remo means every thing to Michael Matthews. The Australian racer has vividly visualised and dreamed about crossing the road first on the Via Roma. “More instances than I might say,” he tells Cyclingnews.
He has come so near doing that in actuality, too. Matthews has completed second, third twice and fourth within the 12 months’s first Monument one-day race. With six finishes altogether within the high ten, no different rider within the WorldTour peloton has extra.
Jayco-AlUla’s star sprinter-puncheur has had greater than 40 wins in his profession, having fun with stage wins in all three Grand Tours, and has a Tour de France inexperienced jersey hanging in his wardrobe. But professional biking’s longest one-day race has turn into his white whale. Milan-San Remo fits his versatility, sturdiness and ending velocity so nicely, but its trophy has remained inside attain, however tantalisingly out of his grasp.
There are so some ways to win Milan-San Remo, with a dynamic which may change within the flick of a gear degree or twitch of a contender’s muscle fibre on the Poggio. Underlining how tough the feat is, there have solely been one-time champions since Matthews’ compatriot Matt Goss triumphed in 2011. Nobody has claimed back-to-back victories since German sprinter Erik Zabel in 2000 and 2001.
Matthews agrees that the marathon March occasion is among the sport’s hardest races to overcome. “Because it’s so open to lots of totally different situations,” he says. “Other classics usually come right down to related ones yearly, however I feel lots of guys can recover from the Cipressa and Poggio lately. There’s a mix of sprinters, of climbers, of protagonists, so that you’re probably not certain precisely what’s going to occur.
“It’s a little bit of a lottery, let’s say: you make your transfer, and generally it’ll repay, and different instances, it received’t. You’ve received to gamble on one choice and stick to that, hopefully it really works out. It hasn’t for me but.”
Milan-San Remo isn’t just one other bike race or a field being casually ticked for the Australian veteran. It is a historic occasion which resonates on a deeply private degree for a number of causes. “Firstly, I really like racing in Italy. And secondly, it’s 30 kilometres from Monaco, the place I’ve lived for the final 12 years. I practice on these roads each single day,” Matthews says. He reckons that he has executed the race’s final, finale-shaping hill, the Poggio, 100 instances and is aware of each nook.
“It’s such a gorgeous race. And I feel the fervour the followers have for it, being the primary Monument of the season, it’s all the time tremendous particular to have an excellent outcome there to form of arrange the season,” he provides.
“It actually fits my traits nicely. A protracted race after which a very loopy, hectic ultimate: I really like that stuff. Even once I speak in regards to the race, I get tingles. I’ve been so shut so many instances. I might be very disenchanted to not stand on the highest step of the rostrum in Sanremo in my profession.”
Sign as much as the Musette – our subscriber-only e-newsletter
Matthews “a large number” after agonising 2024 close to miss
Matthews can’t get a lot nearer than he did in 2024. He made it over the Poggio in a dozen-strong group of favourites whittled down by a number of fierce assaults from his good friend Tadej Pogačar. He gave his Slovenian good friend a elevate to the race final 12 months, however there have been to be no niceties when it got here to going for glory.
Mathieu van der Poel’s presence within the group was essential, placing a lid on Pogačar’s transfer and chasing down different harmful assaults, preserving it collectively for Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Jasper Phlipsen. Only that dynamic duo and Lidl-Trek pairing Jasper Stuyven and Mads Pedersen had numbers up entrance, capable of orchestrate a lead-out.
Locked onto Pedersen’s wheel, Matthews launched his dash and hit out in entrance. Philipsen adopted in his slipstream and edged forward within the final moments, profitable on the bike throw by the width of a wheel rim.
“Everything appeared prefer it was going very well till the final 25 metres when my glasses flew off, hit my entrance wheel and went flying up within the air. I’ve by no means seen this occur in biking earlier than,” Matthews mentioned.
“Being a few centimetres away from profitable a Monument was a tough one to swallow,” he recollects. “It took a very long time, principally till the morning of the Tour of Flanders [a fortnight later] to essentially recover from it. I feel these subsequent few races I did, my head was everywhere. I could not focus. I did not actually need to be at races. I used to be a little bit of a large number, truthfully.”
The method wherein he narrowly misplaced the race was a dialogue level within the following days. Almost a 12 months on, Matthews doesn’t imagine he made a mistake by preserving a niche open on the boundaries for Philipsen, who accelerated previous within the final 25 metres.
“It’s a type of advantageous traces. I felt slightly push from my hip, perhaps that moved me slightly bit,” Matthews mentioned. “But I’m additionally not a rider that’s gonna put a man in a barrier to win a motorcycle race. If I did shut the door, perhaps he protests, and I get disqualified. I used to be operating that advantageous line in that Sanremo. I wouldn’t do something otherwise – other than preserving my glasses on my head.”
When you re-watch Matthews’ dash, he has a degree. He begins in the course of the street, carves left, following the shortest path of the street, proper in direction of the median, then left once more in direction of the boundaries within the ultimate seconds earlier than straightening. Any extra deviation, or pinning the Belgian quick man towards the boundaries, would most likely have sealed his destiny with the commissaires.
A supporting function for Oscar Freire
His newest outcome was a far cry from his Milan-San Remo debut as a neo-pro for Rabobank in 2011. At the age of 20, Matthews was the youngest competitor available to help Oscar Freire, a champion he’d appeared as much as for a very long time. A 3-time winner of “La Primavera”, the Spaniard was an unconventional champion, sometimes disorganised and generally marching to his personal beat, which contributed to creating the expertise particularly memorable for Matthews.
“I keep in mind we had been doing the crew assembly the night time earlier than and we mentioned ‘Where is Oscar?’ Nobody had seen him all day. Then he was actually late for the assembly and we mentioned ‘Where have you ever been?’
“He mentioned, ‘Oh, I went for a stroll into Milan; I used to be taking images,’” Matthews recollects. It flew within the face of professional biking lore: why sightsee, not to mention stand, when you’ll be able to sit or lie down, particularly forward of a 300-kilometre Classic?
“So this was my first expertise of Milan-San Remo. Oscar was a loopy man, so proficient, however actually simply having fun with life. I feel he crashed in that race and broke his shoe, so he needed to get a spare one from the automobile. Then I used to be pacing him again, however sadly, we by no means actually made it again to the entrance.
Never thoughts ending 107th, the seeds for a career-long love affair had been sown for Matthews. “It was a very particular expertise that I’ll always remember,” he says.
Within just a few years, Matthews was contending for the race himself. His first top-10 end got here again in 2015, putting third, just a few metres behind winner John Degenkolb and Alexander Kristoff. Off the again of two Paris-Nice stage wins that spring, Matthews was assured it was going to be his 12 months.
“I tousled the dash. I received myself right into a place the place I received blocked and couldn’t do my correct dash. If you see the replay, from the place I got here from to the place I received to, I used to be tremendous quick,” he displays.
“I feel that one additionally haunts me till now, principally figuring out I used to be so sturdy and received blocked at a foul second and didn’t hit out once I ought to have. But you be taught from that, hopefully you don’t make the identical mistake once more.”
He additionally completed third in 2020, better of the small sprinting pack as Wout van Aert pipped Julian Alaphilippe 25 metres up the street after their breakaway over the Poggio. So close to, but up to now once more.
The make-up of San Remo
The Milan-San Remo route adjustments little or no within the fashionable period. The riders know the principal assessments that face them and are up on the break of day to carbo-load forward of a 288-kilometre race, with over 2,300 metres of climbing on supply.
A sluggish version can imply over seven and a half hours within the saddle for the bunch. It’s a difficult one to organize for. “I attempt to not overthink it. It’s most likely the race I’ve executed essentially the most in my profession,” Matthews mentioned. “I feel you simply want to change off your mind as a lot as doable till it must activate and actually focus for the ultimate.”
Alongside chatting with peloton buddies early on, Matthews focuses on consuming and consuming, getting 1000’s extra energy on board: “There’s no actual secret to it. Either you prefer it otherwise you don’t, you’ll be able to deal with it or you’ll be able to’t.
“Every time I do the race, I feel again to the years earlier than the place I’ve been by way of each form of climate in Milan-San Remo – snow, loopy rain, lovely climate, fairly okay climate. I consider all these various things which have occurred over the past years, form of collect up all that info that I’ve discovered from the race and try to do higher yearly.”
Haring south by way of the Po Valley, the percorso drags up Fausto Coppi’s hometown of Novi Ligure across the 90km mark earlier than ascending its excessive level, the Passo del Turchino, simply earlier than the midway mark.
After hitting the azure, alluring Ligurian shoreline 10 kilometres later, it’s flats-ville till the capi, the punchy climbs on the SS1 street, which hugs the Ligurian Sea. Capo Mele, reached with 60km to go, alerts the beginning of a hill-stuffed endgame, shortly adopted by the Capo Cervo and Capo Berta.
In current years, small teams have contested victory in San Remo, a far cry from the 40-strong pelotons we noticed ten years in the past. Matthews reckons a contributing issue is the capi being ridden extra intensely than up to now, resulting in riders being dropped there. “Every 12 months, it simply appears to be getting faster and faster,” the 34-year-old says.
“I don’t assume it’s right down to a sure individual, simply the way in which the race is evolving, the place climbers are beginning to really feel they will get entangled. When you see guys like Nibali profitable the race [in 2018], I feel each different punchy climber is considering, ‘Maybe I can win.’”
Positioning on the entrance turns into increasingly more essential for the race’s ultimate two hills, the Cipressa and Poggio. If a wannabe winner will not be within the high twenty-five positions, particularly because the tempo cranks up earlier than the ultimate climb, it’s troublesome to win. Any acceleration burns treasured power proper earlier than it’s wanted most.
Faster, nonetheless livid: how the finale’s dynamic advanced
The traits of Milan-San Remo’s ultimate hour normally is determined by the tactic of pre-race favourites and their groups’ manpower. Sometimes, all you want is one famous person who has the facility and the well-timed solo assault (Mathieu van der Poel, 2023) or just a few on-song all-rounders to make good an escape over the Poggio (Kwiatkowski, Sagan and Alaphilippe’s blanket end in 2017 involves thoughts). On different events, groups with hardy sprinters name the pictures, possessing the numbers and want to maintain issues collectively – such because the 2016 version, received by Arnaud Démare received, when Katusha, Tinkoff-Saxo and Etixx-QuickStep chased and pushed for a bunch kick.
In the present period, the data of needing to make the race exhausting for pure sprinters results in a quicker Milan-San Remo finale than ever. “I feel the quantity of various riders focusing on the race now simply makes it quicker and quicker. When you get to these two ultimate climbs now, the previous few years, you see UAE eager to make it as exhausting as they will to drop as many individuals as they will to make it extra suited to Tadej [Pogačar]. I’m certain that’s not going to vary within the subsequent few years.”
Fail to adapt, put together to fail. That manner of racing performs into Matthews’ arms, too. “If Philipsen wasn’t there final 12 months – okay, perhaps Mathieu can be racing for himself, it might need been slightly totally different,” he says.
“But Philipsen might be the quickest man on the planet in the intervening time and it’s troublesome to beat him if he’s gotten over the climbs with a man like Mathieu to assist him. So the proper state of affairs for me can be as quick as doable to do away with as many individuals as we are able to and have a extra lowered dash.”
In fashionable life, there could be an onus on altering issues for change’s sake, generally catering to society’s perceived lowered consideration span. Milan-San Remo may be a protracted, slow-burner, however its conclusion is a time-honoured treasure which is ideal as it’s. The bunch goes full throttle up and down the Poggio, seeing puncheurs, climbers, Grand Tour contenders, time-triallists and sprinters going toe-to-toe.
With assaults firing away and nail-biting pursuits of escapees, it’s an adrenaline flood for rider and viewer alike, quarter-hour of assured unmissable sport.
Then, after a whirlwind of a day, Matthews results in Monaco, questioning what on earth simply occurred.
“Last 12 months, my spouse and daughter had been on the end line. We jumped in our little Audi A1 and drove residence,” he says. “We received some supply sushi, had that for dinner and went to mattress. It was loopy: from a tyre away from profitable a Monument and the dream of my life to again to actuality, form of factor.
“It was undoubtedly a rollercoaster of feelings from crossing that end line, even till now. I by no means form of can let it go, let’s say,” he says of his second place. “That night time, my spouse and I had been joyful [with my personal effort, beating so many talented riders], however being so shut, clearly it’s very troublesome.”
So, made wiser by years of expertise and motivated much more by his close to misses, is 2025 the 12 months that Michael Matthews lastly wins Milan-San Remo?
“It’s a type of races the place I noticed my Australian teammates win, with Matt Goss and likewise Simon Gerrans. So, it clearly does swimsuit Australian riders. I’m simply hoping and dreaming to be the subsequent one to do it,” he says.
If you subscribe to Cyclingnews, you must join our new subscriber-only e-newsletter. From unique interviews and tech galleries to race evaluation and in-depth options, the Musette means you may by no means miss out on member-exclusive content material. Sign up now