Slovenian 3rd in fastest ever edition
Saturday 16 March, 2024
Tadej Pogačar finished third in an intense Milano-Sanremo, which saw Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin Deceuninck) triumph in the sprint.
As expected, the first part of the Italian classic, the 288km from Pavia to Sanremo, featured a breakaway starting after 15km. However, it did not worry the top riders of the day, who always maintained a manageable gap from the breakaway.
UAE Team Emirates began to move and push their riders on the Cipressa climb, highlighting the young Del Toro. It was then on the Poggio that Pogačar attempted an attack but failed to drop his rivals.
In the finale, Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Victorious), already a winner in 2022, animated the last kilometers of the race. However, it ended with a reduced group sprint, where the Slovenian talent from UAE Team Emirates tried to make a comeback but had to settle for third place.
Pogačar: “This podium is one of the finest I could imagine. Michael and Jasper are good friends so I’m really happy to be able to climb the podium with them. I had really good legs and felt I could have won but here everyone wants to win, so I can be pleased with my podium. The team did a really great job, almost perfect I would say on the Cipressa and Poggio. I couldn’t open a gap on the final climb no matter how hard I tried so I tried my luck in the sprint. We’ll come back again in the future and try for the win.”
Results
1.Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 6:14:44
2.Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) s.t
3.Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) s.t
