The stars were not exactly aligned for Pogacar in Sanremo: headwind, absent domestiques and a crash of his own
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Follow us on Google As the months, weeks and days leading up to Milan-Sanremo went by, it became increasingly clear that the signs were not especially favourable for Tadej Pogacar in his ongoing quest to win La Primavera. The Slovenian leader of UAE Team Emirates-XRG arrived in tremendous shape, but several of the conditions needed to win on the Via Roma were never fully in his favour. And even during the race itself, things kept going wrong.
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Pogacar’s run of bad luck had effectively started back in January, when Jhonatan Narváez crashed heavily at the Tour Down Under and it became clear that he would miss most of the spring. The Ecuadorian had been crucial last year in delivering Pogacar into position on the Cipressa, where the Slovenian launched his move. Even then it had not been enough, with Mathieu van der Poel going on to win.
Under normal circumstances, Narváez would almost certainly have been part of the line-up again, and the same was true of Tim Wellens. But the Belgian champion broke his collarbone in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, which ruled him out of Sanremo as well. That meant UAE’s ideal train for the perfect Cipressa attack already looked much harder to assemble.
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Tim Wellens dropped out in Kuurne and so could not be there in Sanremo
Pogacar had a headwind in Milan-Sanremo
In the final days before Milan-Sanremo, another setback emerged for Pogacar. In 2025 he had enjoyed a strong tailwind in the finale, which helped make the race as hard as possible. For the 2026 edition, however, a headwind was forecast instead, even if it was not expected to be especially strong. Oliver Naesen said it before the start in a pre-race interview on YouTube: “If there is one edition to sprint for, it is today.”
In a race where everything usually has to fall perfectly into place to win, luck also turned against Pogacar during the race itself. In a crash in the bunch, his climbing domestique Jan Christen hit the ground together with Movistar rider Orluis Aular. Both men abandoned. It was a serious blow for UAE, especially after Christen had delivered excellent support work in both Strade Bianche and Tirreno-Adriatico.
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Pogacar crashes on the run-in to the Cipressa
So was that the end of the bad luck for Pogacar? Not quite. On the approach to the Cipressa, the rider in the rainbow jersey then crashed himself, sliding out in a left-hand corner. The world champion lost time and was not yet back onto the rear of the peloton when the Cipressa began. Rival Mathieu van der Poel was also delayed and came away bloodied, but he did make it back onto the climb in time.
Did Pogacar still manage to win Milan-Sanremo despite all that? He certainly did. UAE brought him back to the front, rolled out the Cipressa plan anyway, and only Tom Pidcock and Mathieu van der Poel were able to follow. On the Poggio, Van der Poel was finally dropped, before Pogacar then beat Pidcock in the two-up sprint to take the Sanremo victory he had wanted for so long.
Bram van der PloegEditor-in-chief
Bram van der Ploeg (35) is the proud founder of In de Leiderstrui, IDL Pro Cycling's parent site, launched in 2018. Finally, he could create stories about the sport he had followed since childhood. He is the editor-in-chief on paper, but prefers to be with his recorder next to a rider, a team bus, or in the mud at a cyclocross race. Every year, from February to the end of May, Bram follows the entire Italian cycling season, from the Trofeo Laigueglia to the Giro d'Italia, with the grand finale in October in Lombardy. During that time, he lives in Tuscany, where he has since come to call Italy his 'home'.
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