The staggering watts Pogacar needed to finally drop Van der Poel on the Poggio at Milan-Sanremo

Pogacar had reconnoitred the Cipressa countless times over recent months. In the build-up, he had already set a new benchmark there, meaning he was quicker than during his attack last year. But this time, despite the crash, he somehow went even faster. The Slovenian’s new official Strava record stands at 8 minutes 49 seconds. Because he also had to come from behind after the fall, he still completed the climb nine seconds faster than Tom Pidcock.

Even that was not enough to get rid of the Brit and defending champion Mathieu van der Poel. On the Poggio, however, Pogacar finally made the difference. There was no Strava KOM this time, but his 5 minutes 31 seconds on the decisive climb was still the fastest ascent ever recorded in race conditions. Pogacar and Pidcock flew up the Poggio at an average speed of 38.6 km/h, and their Dutch rival could no longer hold the wheel.

That becomes easier to understand once you look at the winner’s power numbers. According to data shared by Velon, Pogacar pushed a remarkable 620 watts for 1 minute 10 seconds during the first acceleration that finally distanced Van der Poel. His peak even hit 890 watts. During that effort, Pogacar averaged more than 40 km/h on a gradient of nearly 5 percent.

While Van der Poel saw his hopes of a third Milan-Sanremo victory disappear on the Poggio, Pidcock was still able to follow. That set up a sprint on the Via Roma, where Pogacar narrowly came out on top. But even there, he had to go all the way to the limit: according to fitness tracker Whoop, the Slovenian reached a maximum heart rate of 197 bpm in the decisive sprint. That was 156 beats above his resting heart rate.