Milan-Sanremo 2025, for Pogacar no victory but a new record on Cipressa

Sanremo, 22 March 2025 - Trying everything to win, leaving nothing to chance, in the truest sense of the word: that's what he did Tadej pogacar to the Milan-Sanremo 2025. In the end, the turnover was 'only' a third place, the second in a row, behind Filippo Gana and above all of the winner Mathieu van der Poel, but the world champion can console himself with the new record signed on the Cipressa.  

Previous records and Pogacar's travel time

  One of the iconic climbs of the Very classic, 5,6 km with an average slope of 4,2% and maximum of 9%, for a difference in height of 234 meters, has long been in the thoughts of the Slovenian and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG, working to try to complete it in less than 9'. The climb, located 22 km from the finish line of Via Roma, until this morning 'belonged' to Gabriel Colombo e Alexander Gontschenkov, In which 1996 they climbed it in 9'19 ". It is no coincidence that in that very year the Milan-Sanremo it was actually decided at that point, with the Italian then getting the better of the Ukrainian at the finish line. The late Marco Pantani, in 1999, went up in 9'28 ", only to then arrive only 62esimo, as a testimony to how little this race is suited to the qualities of pure climbers: for the record, he won Andrei Tchmil before Erick Zabel. In 2022 the primacy was almost reached by a group performance, which was worth the promotion in 9'30 ". Then the hurricane pogacar enters the scene and turns everything upside down: the victory of the Milan-Sanremo it may not have arrived, but rather than the Slovenian's demerits we can talk about the duo's merits Van Der Poel Ganna, capable of holding off the many jabs delivered by the champion as soon as the road became steep and then counterattacking, especially the Dutchman, on more friendly ground. The three climb the hill together on CipressaBut with pogacar to lead the group, with a time of 8'45 ", so of course 34" lower than the previous record, dating back to 29 years ago. So, for the runner of theUAE Team Emirates-XRG the taboo remains perfectly intact Milan-Sanremo, with a report 12esimo place since 2020, fifth place since 2022, fourth since 2023 e two third places since 2024 and in 2025, but the wall of the falls 9' to travel the Cipressa. It is difficult to know whether the next assault on the Very classic can start from this very primacy or if pogacar and his team will try to study something new, maybe even on the next one knoll, in the 'easiest' of the difficult races, where there are no steep slopes on which the champions can really create a vacuum. He experienced it pantani and he did it too pogacar, two splinters on the Cipressa but without being able to get their hands on the first one Classical Monument of the season.