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Sunday, March 23, 2025

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Upcoming racing:

• March 24 - 30: Volta Ciclista a Catalunya
• March 25 - 29: Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali

Latest completed racing:

• March 22: Milano-Sanremo
• March 21: Bredene Koksijde Classic
• March 20: GP de Denain
• March 19: Danilith Nokere Koerse
• March 19: Milano-Torino
• March 9 - 16: Paris-Nice
• March 10 - 16: Tirreno-Adriatico
• March 8: Strade Bianche
• March 5: Trofeo Laigueglia
• March 4: Le Samyn Classic
• February 26 - March 2: O Gran Camiño
• March 2: Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne
• March 2: Faun Drôme Classic

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Milan - Sanremo reports

We posted the report from third-place Tadej Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG with the results.

Here's the Milano-Sanremo report from second-place Filippo Ganna's INEOS Grenadiers:

Filippo Ganna put in a tremendous, determined performance to finish second in a thrilling edition of Milan-Sanremo as Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deuceunick) sealed victory.

Ganna sprinted to second place ahead of Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) after the INEOS Grenadiers had put in a superb team performance to help position the Italian for a thrilling finale.

Tadej Pogacar and Filippo Ganna just after the race. Sirotti photo

Despite being dropped on La Cipressa and the Poggio climbs, the tenacious Ganna fought back into contention each time, catching his rivals in the closing metres to setup a three-up sprint that saw him record his second La Classicissima podium in three years.

Earlier, the Grenadiers had maintained a watchful eye over the front of the peloton and were well-positioned to ensure safe passage in rainy conditions. Then with 63km to go, Geraint Thomas came to the front of the bunch to push the pace.

He helped position the Grenadiers into the first of the 'Tres Capi' climbs, the Capo Mele, which saw Connor Swift unfortunately caught behind a crash with 51km remaining.

Connor Swift fought back to re-join his teammates for the Capo Cervo and help maintain a strong position before his cousin Ben Swift then continued the excellent work on the front to push the pace towards the Cipressa, where Ben Turner took over pace-setting.

A Chaotic start to the Cipressa saw a crash half-way down the peloton which slowed the bunch as UAE Team Emirates started to increase the pace.

However, Ganna was well-placed and one of only three riders able to follow Pogacar who attacked and split the lead group. This quartet quickly became a trio as Ganna, Pogacar and Van der Poel went clear of the chasing group - never to be caught.

Accelerations from Pogacar on the Poggio ascent saw Ganna drop back, but he stuck to his rhythm and slowly clawed the lead duo back after the descent to setup a grandstand finale on the Via Roma.

Here's the report from eighth-place Olav Kooij's Team Visma | Lease a Bike:

Olav Kooij sprinted to eighth place in the 116th edition of Milano-Sanremo. In his second participation, the Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider secured his first top-ten finish in a Monument. The victory went to Mathieu van der Poel.

The race started in rainy conditions, but the weather cleared upon reaching the Ligurian coast. An early breakaway of eight riders was only caught on the climb of the Cipressa, after which the pace increased significantly. Kooij initially held his position well in the peloton.

Tadej Pogačar launched an attack on the Cipressa, quickly joined by Filippo Ganna and Van der Poel. It soon became clear that this trio would fight for the win, prompting Kooij and his teammates to shift their focus.

Before reaching the coast, the peloton races through the town of Tortona. Sirotti photo

In the sprint from the chasing group, Kooij ultimately finished eighth. “In races like these, the dynamics need to be different for me to contend for the victory. When Pogačar’s team upped the pace on the Cipressa, I knew what was coming. In the end, I secured a strong finish, but I definitely want to return for more in the future. It was a tough race, both because of the distance and the high pace in the final. The team did an excellent job keeping me at the front and guiding me over the climbs”, Kooij said.

“This may not be the result we came for, but given how the race unfolded, we have to be satisfied with it”, said sports director Maarten Wynants. “We can be proud of how we presented ourselves today. We always race to win, but in the finale, it became clear that wasn’t an option anymore. After that, we maximized our result, and for now, we should be satisfied with that. We handled things better than last year, and this performance offers Olav a lot of perspective. We were hoping for a bunch sprint for victory, but today, three riders were clearly stronger than the rest. At least we have no regrets about how we raced.”

Here's the Milano-Sanremo report from Casper Pedersen's Team Soudal Quick-Step:

The first Monument of the year, Milano-Sanremo got underway from Pavia, and the rain that made an unwanted appearance at the start continued to accompany the riders for the first half of the race, leaving way to the clear sky and even some sun only after the Passo del Turchino, the climb where Fausto Coppi wrote history more than 70 decades ago.

On the coast and no rain. RCS photo

The race exploded on the Cipressa, when a series of attacks blew the bunch apart and left just three riders at the front. On the fast descent, the trio managed to get their back to one minute, while behind the peloton – which included Casper Pedersen and Maximilian Schachmann – tried to organise a chase. They somehow managed to reduce the gap to 40 seconds by the bottom of the legendary Poggio, but the trio continued to press on and kept a hefty advantage over them as they continued their furious race to the Via Roma, where Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) triumphed.

Pedersen – who made his fourth “La Primavera” appearance – concluded the fifth-fastest Milano-Sanremo edition in history as the highest-ranked Soudal Quick-Step rider, some 40-odd seconds behind the winner and a couple of places ahead of teammate Max Schachmann, who came home with the same group.

Soudal Quick-Step rider Martin Svrcek was taken to the hospital after crashing on the descent of the Cipressa during Saturday’s Milano-Sanremo.

Martin, who was making his Monument debut, remained conscious after the crash, but sustained multiple fractures including a fracture of the right collarbone, the right scapula and several ribs. Martin will remain in hospital in Sanremo under observation for a couple of days. More information will be released in the upcoming days.

And here's the Milano-Sanremo report from Romain Grégoire's Team Groupama-FDJ:

For a few moments, this Saturday on Milano-Sanremo, Romain Grégoire earned himself a place among the greatest. When Tadej Pogacar blew the race apart on the Cipressa, the young puncher from Groupama-FDJ was indeed one of only three riders able to follow. Unfortunately, the adventure didn’t last for the Frenchman, who was eventually caught by a small peloton before the Poggio. He was then unable to conclude his nice day in the large sprint for fourth place (30th), but he certainly laid the foundations for future years.

The peloton after 200 kilometers, RCS photo

Monument Day, and spring day! At least, that’s supposedly the promise of Milan-San Remo. Yet, it was with rain and quite cool temperatures that the riders set off on the 116th “Primavera” shortly after 10 a.m. on Saturday. Like last year, it all started in Pavia, and like last year, the total distance didn’t quite reach the mythical 300-km mark. To be precise, 289 kilometres of racing were on the menu, to which four kilometers of “neutral start” were to be added.

Most of the course remained unchanged, with the anticipated explosion in the final hour of racing, but as usual, a breakaway led the way for most of the day. Alessandro Verre, Mathis Le Berre, Martin Marcellusi, Filippo Turconi, Tommaso Nencini, Mark Stewart, Baptiste Veistroffer and Kristian Sbaragli rode with a four-minute lead for several hours, while the riders finally saw the first sunrays as they got to the Ligurian coast, after crossing the Passo del Turchino. However, it wasn’t until the final seventy kilometres that the tension really increased, with a constant battle for positioning as the “Capi” approached. These first hills didn’t cause any significant damage within the peloton, and the expected great showdown on the slopes of the Cipressa was therefore looming.

The Groupama-FDJ squad then tried to keep its leader Romain Grégoire at the front, and they achieved it quite successfully. “The plan was for Clément and Lewis to be in the best possible conditions to be able to do this job for Romain,” explained Philippe Mauduit. “So, their teammates did their part upstream. Sven did a strong first part of the race, repositioning the guys on the Turchino to approach the descent in the lead and avoid any trouble. He pulled again a little later with Thibaud to get over the first Capi, then Lewis and Clément came into action. It went really well and it’s a great satisfaction because we saw today that it was a high-quality Milan-San Remo.”

With twenty-seven kilometres to go, the French leader was therefore among the first ten riders to enter the penultimate climb of the day. “They did the job they needed to do, I was in the right place at the right time,” said Romain. And it was better to be there, since Tadej Pogacar’s teammates immediately set a furious pace. “I didn’t know if he was going to attack in the Cipressa, but I knew it was going to be very fast from the bottom to the top,” added Romain. The peloton stretched out enormously, with splits occurring, but the young man from Besançon remained at the very front.

Three kilometers from the top, the pace got too hard for a few riders ahead of him. He quickly closed the gap, and two hundred metres further on, Tadej Pogacar himself delivered the final stroke. Only three men managed to withstand the impact: Mathieu van der Poel, Filippo Ganna, and… Romain Grégoire. The Frenchman managed to hang on for a few hundred metres, but the prolonged effort ultimately proved too much for him, and the trio took off without him. “I didn’t think twice, and I went for it when the big acceleration came,” he said. “Unfortunately, my legs couldn’t keep up. They say that when you get too close to the sun, you get burned. I think that’s what happened to me today.”

“It takes guts to close the gaps and get back on Ganna’s wheel, especially since Ganna was himself on Van der Poel and Pogacar,” Philippe said. “Apart from the physical qualities, it shows his mental strength and his desire to win big things.” Romain Grégoire stayed in-between until the top of the Cipressa, then was caught by a very thin peloton, where Quentin Pacher managed to come back in the transition to the Poggio. At the front of the race, no one was able to break away on the final climb of the course. Neither did someone in the peloton a minute later. “All the riders who were left in this group were on the limit, and no one was able to attack,” Philippe Mauduit said.

On the Via Roma, Mathieu van der Poel claimed victory from a three-man group, while a sprint of around forty riders decided the remaining positions. Quentin Pacher (29th) and Romain Grégoire (30th) couldn’t find their way through. “I have no regrets about trying to follow the best, because the legs spoke, but it’s again disappointing to come away without a result although I felt good,” said Romain. “I think I didn’t get rewarded today.”

“Romain and Quentin were frustrated because they missed a bit their approach to the sprint, but everything that had been done beforehand had been well done,” concluded Philippe. “I’m disappointed for the boys that we didn’t get the result in the end because they deserved it. We’ll take all the positives. It’s already a genuine satisfaction to have seen the team at this level, to have succeeded in sticking to the plan we had set for ourselves, and to have seen Romain capable of fighting with the best. Obviously, we can be disappointed if we look at the result, but I want to remember the work, the commitment and still, Romain’s performance. There is no doubt that he will eventually get there. We mustn’t forget that the top three all have a little more experience than him. What he achieved today is great. We shouldn’t be satisfied with that, but we know him well enough to know that he won’t be satisfied with it, and that gives us hope for some great races in the coming weeks.”

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