Season after season, attack after attack, the love-hate relationship between Tadej Pogačar and Milano-Sanremo grows deeper. The reason is simple: La Classicissima is one of the very few races on the calendar that the Slovenian phenomenon doesn’t seem to have been able to get his head around yet. There is little doubt that Pogačar is the strongest – alongside a couple of other riders one can easily imagine – but his sheer dominance and undisputed talent often turn into a trap, especially at the Italian classic. Every single year, the Slovenian is the marked man, with everyone watching his wheel, knowing full well that he will attack, most likely on the Poggio, as he has in recent years.
The famous Ligurian climb, despite coming after nearly 290 km of racing, does not have impossibly steep gradients, and so far, Pogačar has always encountered at least one rider, sometimes two or three, capable of staying on his wheel (the likes of Van der Poel, Van Aert, and Ganna). “Milano-Sanremo is probably the race that will torment me for the longest time” he said at the end of last year in an interview with an American podcast. Even though he is a fast rider, a reduced group sprint is not an option for him, as there will almost always be a faster finisher in a final dash to the line.
Time to mix things up and come up with other options then! The most evident one seems to be the Cipressa (5.6 km at 4.1%), tackled just over 20 km from the finish. In recent years, some have tried to attack there, but the long stretch of the Aurelia state highway followed by the Poggio have always allowed a large group to chase back. The last time Cipressa proved decisive for final victory dates back to 1996, when Gabriele Colombo waved everyone goodbye and went for glory. Attacking there is a huge gamble, as it risks wasting the one real chance to win in Sanremo.
And yet, this is exactly what fans are hoping Pogačar will attempt in 2025. Another crazy move, another long-range solo attack like the many he pulled off last year. A strike capable of breaking any rival’s resistance and allowing him to write another page of history, one of the many in his already impressive career.
The hypothesis of an attack on the Cipressa is not just wishful thinking; there are concrete clues. This winter, clad in his dazzling rainbow jersey, Pogačar was spotted on the Ligurian climb making a maximum effort, in what seemed to be a sort of rehearsal for what might happen on March 22.
Not only that, but one of his teammates who will support him in this daring attempt, Tim Wellens, recently said, half-jokingly: “Joking around with Tadej, we got it into our heads to do the Cipressa in under 9 minutes. Even though, as we well know after what happened last year, Sanremo doesn’t always go according to plan”. For reference, the current Cipressa climbing record is 9’19” (set in 1996), followed by Pantani’s 9’28” in 1999, and last year’s 9’35”, when Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates failed to create the gap they had hoped for.
A sense of anticipation also hangs in the air among the Slovenian’s main rivals. Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) told us, “They say there’s a Slovenian ready to go on the Cipressa… we’ll see!” Indeed, all we can do now is wait.
