Mathieu van der Poel isn\u2019t letting Tadej Poga\u010dar complete cycling, and that\u2019s a good thing.<\/p>\n
MVDP resisted cycling\u2019s unstoppable force last year at Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix to deny him the monument sweep he lusts for.<\/p>\n
And the longer that Alpecin Premier-Tech\u2019s immovable object deflects Poga\u010dar\u2019s relentless hammering, the better.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
Because the longer Poga\u010dar keeps trying to win San Remo and Roubaix, the longer we get to watch him try.<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s editions of La Classicissima<\/em> and \u201cHell\u201d were Mad Max Monuments worthy of endless repeat on the turbo trainer, and we need more.<\/p>\n Milan-San Remo rocketed out of a 300km malaise to become the most explosive race on the calendar when Poga\u010dar decided to rewrite the Playbook of La Primavera<\/em>.<\/p>\n Why wait to attack on the Poggio when you can do it 20km earlier on the Cipressa?<\/p>\n It\u2019s Poga\u010dar\u2019s one hope of success in a race designed for muscling speed.<\/p>\n But the Slovenian has a rare problem.<\/p>\n There\u2019s one rival that won\u2019t bend to his will, no matter what the tactic.<\/p>\n And his name is Mathieu.<\/p>\n Van der Poel and Filippo Ganna matched UAE\u2019s mass assault on the Cipressa in 2025, and the Dutchman will do it again on Saturday.<\/p>\n He can feel it in his bones.<\/p>\n \u201cMy form is more than good enough to win Milan-San Remo I think,\u201d Van der Poel told VTM Nieuws<\/i> on Sunday after Tirreno-Adriatico. \u201cI\u2019m happy with my preparation I\u2019ve had.\u201d<\/p>\n Another ridiculous cyclocross season and a bombastic week at Tirreno-Adriatico have left Van der Poel well-placed to spoil Poga\u010dar\u2019s party one more time on Saturday.<\/p>\n Like San Remo and Roubaix last year, expect a race for the ages.<\/p>\n Van der Poel is top of everybody\u2019s ranking for La Classicissima<\/em>.<\/p>\n If he fulfills the billing, it would be a third victory on the Via Roma in four years for this King of the Spring. In fact, the 31-year-old could have been on for a four-year sweep if he hadn\u2019t played leadout for teammate Jasper Philipsen in 2024.<\/p>\n The saying that San Remo is \u201ceasiest to finish, hardest to win,\u201d doesn\u2019t seem to apply to MVDP.<\/p>\n He\u2019s cracked the code that Poga\u010dar is still scrambling around for.<\/p>\n \u201cMilan-San Remo is one of the main goals of the season every year,\u201d Van der Poel said last week. \u201cIt\u2019s a very special race, a very difficult one to win as well.<\/p>\n \u201cI was lucky enough to win it twice already, and I would love to win a third time.\u201d<\/p>\n Van der Poel will level Fausto Coppi, Roger de Vlaeminck, and Oscar Freire on all-time wins if he makes it a hat trick Saturday.<\/p>\n Because re-writing history isn\u2019t only for Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n Van der Poel\u2019s sixth sense for San Remo is poking Poga\u010dar to enraged desperation.<\/p>\n No matter what the Slovenian tries, the Dutchman\u2019s strapping shoulders aren\u2019t far behind.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar has tried a crazed cluster of attacks on the Poggio.<\/p>\n He\u2019s tried one sledgehammer move on the smooth hillock.<\/p>\n And because Pogi is Pogi, he ignored the rules of modern cycling last year and split the race with 30km to go on the Cipressa.<\/p>\n He wants San Remo\u2019s circular trophy so bad it almost doesn\u2019t suit him.<\/p>\n \u201cWinning San Remo would mean more to me than a record six Tour de France victories,\u201d Poga\u010dar recently told Gazzetta dello Sport<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a bigger difference between zero and one than there is between four and five,\u201d he said, referencing his quartet of maillots jaune.<\/em><\/p>\n Poga\u010dar couldn\u2019t do the damage he hoped for last year on the Cipressa. Van der Poel and Ganna didn\u2019t let go.<\/p>\n But that doesn\u2019t seem to have put him off planning to try again \u2013 even in the absence of UAE\u2019s key launchers Tim Wellens and Jhonathan Narv\u00e1ez.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar has been reconning the 6km hump like crazy all winter and lowered his own Strava KoM there earlier this month. According to on-form domestique Florian Vermeersch, UAE Emirates-XRG has gotten its plan for lift-off down pat.<\/p>\n \u201cMy role involves guiding Tadej and the climbers into a good position over the first Capi and towards the foot of the Cipressa,\u201d Vermeersch told Het Laatste Nieuws<\/em>. \u201cAfter that, it\u2019s up to our climbing train to fly.\u201d<\/p>\n Van der Poel is praying to the cycling Gods that he can resist once more.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year, he was very close to getting a gap on the Cipressa. If I\u2019m one percent off, Tadej will be gone,\u201d he said last weekend. \u201cIt\u2019s only a matter of time before he wins that race.\u201d<\/p>\n MVDP won\u2019t have a climbing train to support him on Saturday like Poga\u010dar does.<\/p>\n But he doesn\u2019t need it.<\/p>\n He can read San Remo like it\u2019s an Instagram post and he has the horsepower to play the climb like Playstation.<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t have the desperation and overthinking that could stymie the Slovenian, either.<\/p>\n All he needs to do?<\/p>\n Follow.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very happy with my performances at Tirreno. I also felt pretty good on the climbs,\u201d Van der Poel said. \u201cWhat we did during the stages are the right efforts and simulations I need to be in my best shape.\u201d<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar has been warned.<\/p>\n Call me a spoilsport, but it will be better for us all if Poga\u010dar doesn\u2019t have his way Saturday.<\/p>\n UAE Emirates-XRG already has a single-season win record, long-term deals with Poga\u010dar and Isaac del Toro, and it seems they\u2019ve got Paul Seixas on speed dial, too.<\/p>\n The Emirati team shouldn\u2019t have it all.<\/p>\n And neither should Poga\u010dar \u2013 yet.<\/p>\n Because, to be clear, Poga\u010dar\u2019s dominance isn\u2019t \u201cboring,\u201d and I want him to win San Remo one day. I\u2019d like him to win Paris-Roubaix at one point, too. Who doesn\u2019t want to witness sporting history?<\/p>\n But why not delay ourselves the gratification?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/van-der-poel-beat-pogacar-milan-san-remo\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/msr-2.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated March 20, 2026 09:16AM Mathieu van der Poel isn\u2019t letting Tadej Poga\u010dar complete cycling, and that\u2019s a good thing. MVDP resisted cycling\u2019s unstoppable force last year at Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix to deny him the monument sweep he lusts for. And the longer that Alpecin Premier-Tech\u2019s immovable object deflects […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1837487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1837487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1837487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1837487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1837487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1837487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1837487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Van der Poel is the stone in Poga\u010dar\u2019s San Remo shoe<\/h2>\n
![\"Van](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2206389440-2-1200x800.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Has Van der Poel mastered \u2018the hardest race to win?\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"Van](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-1248522981-1200x800.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
It\u2019s more fun for us all when Poga\u010dar has to try<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2205768630-1200x800.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
\u2018If I\u2019m one percent off, Tadej will be gone\u2019<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2205733864-1200x800.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Let\u2019s delay the gratification<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2264852507-1200x800.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")