Milan-San Remo 2022

The road

At the start

The longest Monument leaves the Vigorelli

From the old Vigorelli track the longest Monument of all rolls out toward Pavia, the Turchino restored to its midpoint. Tadej Pogačar calls this the hardest race for him to win; Wout van Aert, the 2020 winner, says his sprint feels blunted by training and brings Primož Roglič for company. Julian Alaphilippe went home Wednesday with bronchitis. Nothing is decided for 250 kilometres, and then everything is.

How it was won

1. 137 km to go

   Into the small ring on the Capo Berta

   The break, out since the flag dropped and once seven minutes clear over the Turchino, is down to four minutes. On the Capo Berta the escapees start attacking each other and Zakharov and the Androni pair are shed.

2. 227 km to go

   The Cipressa shreds the sprinters

   Two minutes at the foot, forty seconds at the top. UAE Team Emirates and Jumbo-Visma set a fearsome tempo that peels the fast men off the back one by one, and fewer than thirty riders crest the climb — the classic Sanremo cull, right on schedule.

3. 38 km to go

   Pogačar opens the Poggio

   Tonelli and Rivi are swallowed in the opening metres after 285 kilometres out front. Then Pogačar goes with eight kilometres left, turns to find Van Aert and Van der Poel on his wheel, and jumps again. He and Roglič trade accelerations while a crash on a corner splits the group behind.

4. 45 km to go

   Mohorič drops the seatpost and dives

   Everyone crests together and everyone looks at each other. Matej Mohorič does not: he throws himself into the first hairpin of the Poggio descent on a dropper post, taking lines nobody else will contemplate, skittering the bike through the walled corners above San Remo. By the bottom he has the only thing that matters — a handful of seconds and clear road.

5. 53 km to go

   Onto the flat, alone and barely clear

   He hits the run-in with almost nothing in hand, and a chase group of the strongest riders in the world behind him. It looks, for two kilometres, like an obvious catch.

6. 6At the line

   The bridge never comes

   Nobody quite commits, the move never materialises, and Mohorič holds the Via Roma by two seconds. Turgis jumps out of the chase for second, Van der Poel leads the remaining six home for third on his season debut.

The result