Milano - Sanremo 2024, one day monument, March 16

[Salvarani]

I don't think anyone overrates him on the downhill. It's well known that the downhill is not his strength.

Even if it not his strength he is not bad. Not like he is terrible. He is not Plapp.

 

[Savant12]

It was a good finish. Without UAE trying to light up it and not leaving it down to the usual boring Poggio or nothing; which ironically due to UAE's tactic, it was anyway.

Nothing wrong with Philipsen winning, he is a good classics rider.

 

[dazaau]

That was a great finish. But I do have mixed feelings about someone like mvdp riding for someone else.

 

[magliaroz]

Are they going to sit all together on a tiny couch this year too?

 

[Offline]

Pogacar: ''one of the most easy races ever''
On the farstest MSR ever.
Imagine if Pogacar had a real team!

 

[ppanther92]

Pogi is also overrated in a downhill. He’s good following wheels but not to stay in front.

I don't think he is overrated. Everyone seems to agree that he is a passable but not great descender. But yeah, obviously in that race where you only can get small gaps this matters. On that I agree.

 

[DNP-Old]

That being said, turned my TV right off after seeing Philipsen won.

 

[pmcg76]

Why though? He is more like Pedersen than a pure sprinter. See Paris-Roubiax last year. Its not like Mareczko won. Or Cavendish or Goss (which both actually happened).

Yeah, Philipsen is a far better cyclist than sprinters like Cavendish, Petacchi etc, It's not like it was from a bunch of 40-50 riders, there was about 12 left in that group, and it wasn't like the whole Alpecin team were working for just Philipsen either. Good win.

 

[Valv.Piti]

That was a great finish. But I do have mixed feelings about someone like mvdp riding for someone else.

Its kinda shitty, but it is what it is. He should simply be too good for this, but respect I guess, he's a bigger man than most

 

[KZD]

To be fair to mou, he had said that he didn't expect much today since the Ulissi, Hirschi and Covi were the wrong riders for this race.

I remember one of @mou's first posts in this forum last year, he said Pogačar would get third in Sanremo, and then win Flanders, Liège, Lombardia, Olympics, Worlds and the Tour, so at least here, he was not wrong haha

Pidcock did one hell of a descend and then still had the strength to attack, he could very well win this race in the future.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I don't really understand why Van der Poel didn't stay in Pogačar's wheel after the first attack. That wasn't too far from deciding the race.

 

[Red Rick]

I wonder what the strategy could have been though other than making it hard which the team failed at. He couldn't drop the others on the short 8% section of Poggio, so set up and did an attack that actually gapped everyone bar MvdP. So tactically played well.

In order of team tactics - I wonder if knowing you have a weak team, driving it from 50km out was wise, or maybe they should have waited all along for Cipressa. But easy in hindsight.

The basic idea of 'kick out of the corners' on the Poggio is really good, but they didn't have the manpower to bring Pog to the hardest section without giving everyone half a minute of recovery pace.

It's always gonna be extremely hard to drop Van der Poel, but this was not the way.

Also, surely he can't have really believed sprinting against some of the best sprinters int he world was his best shot at winning.

 

[Rob5091]

It's all about being first over the line. Does not matter if you win by 1 mm or 1 km. Chapeau for hanging in there to the end, Philipsen. Bling a second place was a good effort too, as was Bettiol who is in good shape obviously.
Team UAE lost their way at the crucial time and places which messed up their "master plan".

 

[Lequack]

In the end it was Philipsen, the big favorite to win obviously, as predicted. He's bringing the Sanremo back to the sprinters. Next year it will be Cavendish again maybe.

 

[Netserk]

Van der Poel rode this perfectly with the legs he had. He kept a well-measured distance to Pogi on the descent, despite catching him after the first corner, forcing him to stay in front.

 

[RedheadDane]

Strong top 10. The expected riders.

Otoh, I had a brief moment of "not expecting that" when Sobrero got away.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

I already doubted Mads Pedersen before this race, but if he can't win or even podium with a lead out, then it will definitely be hard for him to ever win here.

He looked like he went into the red trying to close gaps, first on the climb and then on the descent. If he'd ridden more conservatively, stuck with Stuyven it might have worked out better but it's easy in hindsight

 

[kingjr]

Pogacar has no strategy apart from "have 50 more watts than everyone else" and it showed today

That was actually quite a clever attack at the top of the Poggio, but vdP had his number.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Teddy saying it wasn't hard enough for him to win...this is getting farcical...

 

[RobertCrawley]

Even if it not his strength he is not bad. Not like he is terrible. He is not Plapp.

Well, he went off the road in the TdF in 2022, and in 2023 TdF ITT Jonas put big time on his last year taking the downhill corners much faster.

 

[ppanther92]

The basic idea of 'kick out of the corners' on the Poggio is really good, but they didn't have the manpower to bring Pog to the hardest section without giving everyone half a minute of recovery pace.

It's always gonna be extremely hard to drop Van der Poel, but this was not the way.

Also, surely he can't have really believed sprinting against some of the best sprinters int he world was his best shot at winning.

I fully agree - but not sure if that indicates tactical ineptness on Pogacar's side.

The race was lost when the team was not there on Cipressa and Poggio.

 

[Salvarani]

Ala even got a top 10

 

[Froome]

You try so hard to be mou, but you'll never be.

 

[kingjr]

That being said, turned my TV right off after seeing Philipsen won.

Thanks for letting us know

 

[nightowl]

Pogi is also overrated in a downhill. He’s good following wheels but not to stay in front. It doesn’t help if Pidcock and Mohoric are a couple seconds behind. Thought Mathieu would go over him and lead the descent, but he didn’t looked as explosive as last year. But still a massive effort in te last km.

Strong top 10. The expected riders.

Pogacar’s weakness downhill has been talked about a lot the last few years to the point where I’d say it’s actually overstated quite often. Like he’s no Pidcock or Mohoric but he’s also not that bad.