Milan San Remo, March 21, 2026, 298 km monument

[topcat]

https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/milano-sanremo/2026/startlist

My first, my last, my everything.
Resting here till day breaks, when shadows fall and darkness disappears.
Labor omnia vincit.
Sic itur ad astra.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Doesn‘t start in Milano, clearly unwatchable to me

 

[Red Rick]

It's finally Ganna happen

 

[canina82]

It's finally Ganna happen

Not in a million years.

 

[canina82]

I only pray for no crashes before Cipressa. There is a strong fight for positioning before we hit Cipressa. RVV and PR are the pinnacle of this sport and would be a shame to see Pogacar, MVP or Wout out of these classics due to injuries.

 

[Red Rick]

Not in a million years.

Luigi Ganna won Milano Sanremo in 1909.

So it already Ganna happened once before, only just over a percent of a percent of a million years ago

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I'll give Ganna higher odds of winning this than the 0% I gave Küng ahead of Omloop. It won't be easy, but if he gets the sprint absolutely right or manages to exploit some hesitation in a smaller, it's not impossible either. It's not the most likely scenario, of course, but neither was what happened on Cipressa last year.

 

[tobydawq]

No Wellens, no Narváez. Drilling Cipressa like last year is going to be difficult but with Del Toro it's probably not impossible.

 

[Netserk]

all three were there last year , and one of them fell short to put it mildly

i think the best case is that he this year can move up like narvaez did and that vermeersch can do a wellens

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Could be the year for Alex aranburu. Cofidis must block the road on the cipressa. I believe Alex can hold pocagar wheel over the poggio and best him in the sprint.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Could be the year for Alex aranburu. Cofidis must block the road on the cipressa. I believe Alex can hold pocagar wheel over the poggio and best him in the sprint.

If Aranburu is still with Pogacar over the Poggio, and even accounting for him being a better than average descender, I would strongly expect that others, better sprinters than both Pogacar and Aranburu, will be there too.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

If Aranburu is still with Pogacar over the Poggio, and even accounting for him being a better than average descender, I would strongly expect that others, better sprinters than both Pogacar and Aranburu, will be there too.

But if they haven't made sure it's impossible to cut corners, he will be more than ready to jump over the telephone booth, or where it used to be, to gain an advantage.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

If Aranburu is still with Pogacar over the Poggio, and even accounting for him being a better than average descender, I would strongly expect that others, better sprinters than both Pogacar and Aranburu, will be there too.

I'm just trying desperately to think of scenarios that don't involve pocagar going on cipressa, MVDP being not strong enough to stay in his wheel, and then a peloton with 10 teams with a potential winner all looking to the others to chase.

Everyone needs to be in the best position possible for cipressa and then block the road. Cofidis, dsm, visma, Bahrain, lotto, quickstep, etc , they need to ride tempo, get some of the old guys to start telling jokes and stories, don't let UAE take the pace.

 

[Potomac]

No "one day" in the thread title?

We are losing our traditions.

 

[SafeBet]

I'm just trying desperately to think of scenarios that don't involve pocagar going on cipressa, MVDP being not strong enough to stay in his wheel, and then a peloton with 10 teams with a potential winner all looking to the others to chase.

Everyone needs to be in the best position possible for cipressa and then block the road. Cofidis, dsm, visma, Bahrain, lotto, quickstep, etc , they need to ride tempo, get some of the old guys to start telling jokes and stories, don't let UAE take the pace.

Challenge used to be climb Cipressa in under 9 minutes, now it is climb it in over 15 minutes.

 

[dazaau]

No "one day" in the thread title?

We are losing our traditions.

Thank you @topcat

 

[Potomac]

Last year before the race Inner Ring wrote a great piece on how Pogacar might win MSR.

Then on race day it seemed like UAE followed his script pretty closely.

I say do it again the same way.

 

[Berniece]

After seeing MVDP today I can’t imagine him getting into any trouble unless he gets ill and/or crashes like he did in Flanders last year. It’s not like he was at his limit last year, he even attacked Pogacar. Probably a sprint between the two of them

 

[AmRacer]

After seeing MVDP today I can’t imagine him getting into any trouble unless he gets ill and/or crashes like he did in Flanders last year. It’s not like he was at his limit last year, he even attacked Pogacar. Probably a sprint between the two of them

He wasn't ill and he was on his limit.

 

[Rule #9 apostle]

After seeing MVDP today I can’t imagine him getting into any trouble unless he gets ill and/or crashes like he did in Flanders last year. It’s not like he was at his limit last year, he even attacked Pogacar. Probably a sprint between the two of them

Pog in the race usually plays into his hands, because he essentially 'just' needs to follow that one wheel and he'll be the favourite in a sprint. But Del Toro being so strong seems like a huge issue. How does he prevent getting worked over? Even if he gets over the Cipressa, with Del Toro around or close by it could become very complicated very quickly.

 

[Berniece]

Pog in the race usually plays into his hands, because he essentially 'just' needs to follow that one wheel and he'll be the favourite in a sprint. But Del Toro being so strong seems like a huge issue. How does he prevent getting worked over? Even if he gets over the Cipressa, with Del Toro around or close by it could become very complicated very quickly.

Complicated for who? I don’t think Del Toro will be there at the top of Cipressa since he has to launch Pogacar

 

[Rule #9 apostle]

Complicated for who? I don’t think Del Toro will be there at the top of Cipressa since he has to launch Pogacar

In Strade del toro didn't do the launch, just followed the wheels. And if so, how far behind MVDP would Del Toro be over the top of the cipressa if he is the final leadout for pog? I don't think it's necessarily that many seconds. It's not that far from the bend where pog will go to the top. Will pog keep riding alone with mvdp if idt is 10 seconds back?

I think if there are two uae in the front group in the finale it could be very complicated for him

 

[Berniece]

In Strade del toro didn't do the launch, just followed the wheels. And if so, how far behind MVDP would Del Toro be over the top of the cipressa if he is the final leadout for pog? I don't think it's necessarily that many seconds. It's not that far from the bend where pog will go to the top. Will pog keep riding alone with mvdp if idt is 10 seconds back?

I think if there are two uae in the front group in the finale it could be very complicated for him

I agree that if UAE wants to win that should be the tactic.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

After seeing MVDP today I can’t imagine him getting into any trouble unless he gets ill and/or crashes like he did in Flanders last year. It’s not like he was at his limit last year, he even attacked Pogacar. Probably a sprint between the two of them

MVP was on Pog's wheel almost the whole finale last year. He had enough in tank to attack once but Pog was the strongest on those climbs. Obviously it doesn't matter much as long as MVP is good enough to follow (it's likely he's good enough). We will see, sprint between them is a likely scenario. UAE will have to sacrifice Del Toro indeed if they were to launch Pog on Cipressa. But maybe they should play 2 vs 1 game this time.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Here are two main scenarios:

1) UAE tries Cipressa attack again like last year: Del Toro is sacrificed, Pog attacks furiously and likely Van der Poel follows. In this scenario something similar to last year will happen. Sprint between Pog, Van der Poel and Ganna (or someone else strong enough to match them). Van der Poel is most likely to win.

2) UAE will try to launch Del Toro first (it could be on Cipressa or on Poggio after strong Cipressa pace). Del Toro goes ballistic (suicide attack) but baits Van der Poel into a strong reaction (with Pog on his wheel). Once MVP deletes Del Toro threat Pogacar counters. I think this scenario is more likely to succeed for UAE than the first but who knows. UAE should finally try it.