Mathieu van der Poel’s Sanremo story — and the flying bike of Søren Kragh Andersen

Saturday, 21 March 2026 at 18:03

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Mathieu van der Poel looked to be on his way to playing another key role in Milan-Sanremo on Saturday, but on the Poggio he was finally forced to concede that even he has his limits. Whether it was partly caused, however unintentionally, by the bike of Lidl-Trek’s Danish rider Søren Kragh Andersen flying through the air, Van der Poel explained afterwards in his post-race reaction.

Van der Poel eventually crossed the line in ninth place on the Via Roma. He logically stopped first to speak to his girlfriend Roxanne, and once she had heard the explanation behind the badly bleeding finger, it was time for Van der Poel to tell the Dutch-speaking press what had happened.

Although the incident was not clearly shown on television, Van der Poel turned out to have been one of the riders affected by the crash that also caught out Tadej Pogačar and Wout van Aert. “In that big crash I thought I had just managed to avoid it, but then another bike came in from the left and there was no way around it. I immediately felt that I had hurt my hand quite badly.”

“So at first I was just about not involved, but then a Lidl-Trek bike flew in my direction,” he said, referring to the machine of former team-mate Søren Kragh Andersen. According to Lidl-Trek sports director Gregory Rast, Kragh Andersen was also being checked by the team doctor after reaching the finish. “That’s when I ended up on the pavement as well. I fell a bit awkwardly, but apart from the hand, it’s not too bad.”

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Soren Kragh Andersen falls to the left of the picture, Tadej Pogacar to the right and Mathieu van der Poel is right behind.

Van der Poel could not grip the bars properly

“The team did a very good job of bringing me back, and I was still able to hang on over the Cipressa, but I could already feel it wasn’t great anymore,” Van der Poel admitted, as honestly as ever. “I rode up at my own pace and saw Tadej, who had also been involved in that crash, come back past me. At the moment when it mattered, I was still there. But I didn’t feel super.”

“Tadej also came back from that crash, so he is the deserved winner,” Van der Poel said, making it clear he was not questioning the result on the Via Roma. “But I had already said on the radio that I couldn’t hold my handlebars properly. I still tried, but it just didn’t really work. I couldn’t accelerate the way I wanted anymore, even though I could still produce the watts.”

Continue reading below the photo!

Van der Poel's damage.

Van der Poel rode the Poggio at his own pace

In the end, Van der Poel still managed to survive the Cipressa. “Before the Poggio I could already feel it, so that’s why I decided to ride that climb at my own pace.”

“The hope was that I might be able to come back again, like Filippo Ganna did last year, if they started looking at each other. But they didn’t, and so it didn’t happen,” said the Alpecin-Premier Tech leader, who was eventually reeled in and had to settle for ninth place.

So the sporting damage was still relatively limited, but what about the injured hand? “That one finger has gone through the nail, I think. That’s giving me quite a bit of pain, but all in all it could have been worse,” Van der Poel concluded.

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Tom van der Salm

Tom van der Salm (27) comes from the charming town of Zeilberg (Deurne) in the Netherlands and has been working as editor-in-chief & journalist at IDL Pro Cycling's parent site, In de Leiderstrui, since 2019. He travels with the peloton from the Tour de France to the AlUla Tour and from the World Championships in Rwanda or Canada to the Zilvermeercross in Mol. In his spare time he enjoys playing football, mountain biking, running, walking with his Labrador/Stabyhoun, investing, holidays, (specialty) beers, reading, cooking and watching sports & documentaries!

Contact: [email protected]

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