A few years ago, the relationship between Mathieu Van der Poel and Milano-Sanremo didn’t seem so natural. The Dutchman’s cycling passion has always revolved around cyclo-cross and mountain bike and, although his versatile skills and supreme physical abilities were evidently suited to road racing, he deemed the discipline a bit boring, with phases of observation and attrition contrasting with his all-out tactics.
The Italian Monument is the epitome of tradition, with its unique length (almost 300km, the longest race of the season) and its long and nervy approach to an explosive up and down final of the iconic Cipressa and Poggio, towards the legendary Via Roma. On the other hand, Van der Poel embodies a new style of racing, shaking the peloton at any given occasion, until his multiple attacks either make him a spectacular winner or break him, and most often in spectacular fashion.
That was until 2023 brought him his first victory in Sanremo, stressing how much “MVDP” has grown and matured. At 28 years old, the “Flying Dutchman” knows how and when to strike the decisive blow. Saturday’s Italian triumph proved it again, with a victory echoing that of his grandfather Raymond Poulidor on the exact same day 62 years earlier in Sanremo, after he had already risen to glory with absolute mastery in the 2023 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships, in February.
“The most difficult Monument to win”
“I love the last 100km,” Van der Poel said with a grin after he took the third Monument of his career, following his two previous successes in the Ronde van Vlaanderen (2020 and 2022). “The problem is the 200km before.” Milano-Sanremo requires patience and mastery, while MVDP had got used to winning in style, thanks to his raw talent, since a young age. “It’s the easiest Monument to ride but the most difficult to win,” he added. “You don’t always win if you’re the strongest, so that makes it really special to win.”
On Saturday, Van der Poel definitely looked like the strongest. UAE Team Emirates and their captain Tadej Pogačar forced a relentless pace up the Poggio, the final climb of the race, as he had the previous year. The Slovenian accelerated once, and it was a brutal attack that only three riders could follow: Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), the quickest to follow the move, Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), winner of the race in 2020 and a hot favourite to double up, and MVDP, who followed the wheel of his Belgian rival and carefully gauged his effort until it was his moment to strike.
“It was easier than I expected up the Cipressa [the penultimate climb] because of the wind,” he explained.“So I told the team the positioning at the start of the Poggio would be crucial.” With the support of Søren Kragh Andersen, who joined Alpecin-Deceuninck this season, Van der Poel was indeed in a perfect position to follow his rivals. Then, 200 metres before the summit, he danced on his pedals with an extreme intensity that left everyone behind.
Van Aert could only pay his respect: “Mathieu showed everybody that he was super strong. He did a strong move at the right moment.” And nobody ever came back.
Perfect focus
Van Aert has been a rival of Van der Poel’s seemingly forever. “The first time I raced Mathieu, I was maybe 10 years old,” he says. The Belgian and the Dutch stars have exchanged many blows and shared many prizes. Most recently, Van Aert has been a close witness to Van der Poel’s ability to pounce at the perfect moment.
This winter, the Belgian looked a step ahead of his Dutch rival in their cycle-cross confrontations… yet it was Van der Poel who took a historic victory in Hoogerheide, his fifth Elite title in the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships.
As they returned to road racing, Van Aert looked more impressive at Tirreno-Adriatico. But just a week later, it’s Van der Poel storming to victory up and down the Poggio. “I was really focused on this race since I started training again after the UCI Cyclo-cross Worlds,” the Dutchman explained. “I needed some race days at Tirreno-Adriatico to get to my best level and, today, this was my best level I think.”
Van der Poel will now take this shape to rest of his Classics campaign and most notably to the Ronde van Vlaanderen (2 April) and Paris-Roubaix (9 April). Victory in the north of France has eluded him so far (3rd in 2021, 9th in 2022). But when MVDP sets a target, it seems like he doesn’t miss anymore.