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Milan-San Remo, they say it’s “the easiest race to finish, the hardest race to win.”
It’s also the toughest race to predict.
A bunch sprint, an attack over the Poggio, a raid down the Via Roma … who knows? Anything’s possible in what is the longest, most boring-but-brilliant race on the men’s calendar.
So let’s embrace the uncertainty.
Here are five outrageous scenarios that could actually happen six hours after Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel, and Tom Pidcock roll out for Saturday’s “Classicissima“:
Pidcock descending attack
The Poggio is screaming for a bonkers Tom Pidcock descending attack.
The audacious Brit did nearly escape the bunch with a downhill manouver on his 2021 San Remo debut, after all. Just one year later, Matej Mohorič proved the Poggio was a prime attack point with his dropper-post heist.
In fact, a wild solo descent might be Pidcock’s best chance this weekend.
Pidders learned the hard way last year he doesn’t have the horsepower for a rogue attack down the Via Roma.
And while Pidcock is on hot form and packs a fast finish, not even he would back himself for a small sprint against six-star favorites MVDP and Pogi.
Pidcock’s insane 80kph+ descent off the precipitous 2700m Galibier at the Tour de France was on the 2022 season highlights reel. Here’s hoping he puts Poggio’s hairpin bends and nail-bitingly narrow streets into the spotlight this spring in a similar fashion.
Ganna and Milan in Via Roma pursuit
Filippo Ganna and Jonathan Milan in a two-up pursuit down the Via Roma?
It’s the finale that Italy’s nonnas have been dreaming of every night since the New Year.
Ganna and Milan are an Italian two-of-a-kind. These strapping stallions crush track pursuits, obliterate time trials, and stomp over bunch sprints.
Sure, Ganna and Milan could both swat away even the speediest in a Via Roma bunch kick, but these huge horsepower stars would slash their odds considerably with a kilometer canter down Italian cycling’s most iconic street.
Ganna even primed the legs for a San Remo raid with a similar attack last week at Tirreno-Adriatico.
The only thing better than Ganna or Milan rolling the dice with a dash down the Via Roma? If the two trackie teammates do it together in an all-Italian drag race.
Pogačar on the Cipressa
Tadej Pogačar couldn’t possibly be the first rider in 29 years to attack on the Cipressa and stay away, could he?
Well, we said similar last season about the chance of Pogi being the first male in 37 years to earn the “triple crown,” and look how that worked out.
The world has pondered a Pogačar attack over the Cipressa every year since his wildly impressive 2020 Milan-San Remo debut. But until now, not even the jack-in-a-box baller has had the cojones to try it out.
It could be Cipressa or bust this year.
Pogačar has tried to spray his rivals with attacks, and to launch one wattbomb, on the Poggio, both to no avail. His San Remo dreams were thwarted by the sprinters last year.
Going long would cut Van der Poel from the Poggio and rid the Via Roma of the speedsters.
It sounds insane, but Pogačar has the legs to go solo from the Cipressa, too. Just look at his 100km raid on road worlds, or the 80km solo escape at last year’s Strade Bianche.
Marco Pantani made a flamboyant solo attack on the Cipressa in 1999. It seems only reasonable that a rider of Pantani’s panache – i.e. Pogačar – would also give it a serious try.
Magnier stuns the bigs in bunch sprint
If a big group keeps together over the Poggio, don’t count out Paul Magnier.
Quick-Step’s “next Tom Boonen” is big, strong, and has been speedier than Jasper Philipsen, Biniam Girmay, and Wout van Aert. Hopefully, the 20-year-old is big enough to brush off a nasty crash at Tirreno-Adriatico last Sunday, too.
Sure, Magnier has never raced a monument or experienced the marathon mileage of Milan-San Remo.
Sure, he’s not faced the full wrath of Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel.
And sure, at close to 80kg, the Frenchman will be one of the burliest to hit the base of the Poggio on Saturday afternoon.
But anything can happen in the mysterious sixth hour of monument racing.
After a string of second-places this winter – including when he beat Van Aert and Philipsen but was denied by an outsider at the Omloop – maybe the grande casino of San Remo will spin things in Magnier’s favor.
Pogačar and Van der Poel in two-up finale
Tadej Pogačar vs Mathieu van der Poel in a straight shoot-out down the Via Roma.
You know you want to see it.
They’re the two “bigs” of world bike racing and the sport’s most exciting stars. Better still, it seems that only Pogi can beat MVDP, and only MVDP can beat Pogi.
The chances of such a scenario are as slim as finding a cappuccino after 11 a.m. in downtown San Remo. But who cares. I just want to see it happen.
You know you do, too.
