Milan-San Remo 2024

The road

At the start

Pavia, and the longest race of the year

A new start town, and the longest day of the year: 288 kilometres to the Via Roma with only the Cipressa and the Poggio between the sprinters and the line. Van der Poel returns to defend a 5.5-kilometre solo; Pogačar, off an eighty-kilometre raid at Strade Bianche, must break the fast men or lose to them. Van Aert is absent, Alpecin also bring Jasper Philipsen — and no bunch sprint has settled this race since 2016.

How it was won

1. 122 km to go

   UAE burn the Cipressa

   UAE Team Emirates hurl their whole train at the Cipressa, Del Toro and Wellens ripping the front to shreds. The peloton is gutted to barely forty riders, but the survivors crest the climb still glued to the breakaway's wheels.

2. 27 km to go

   Pogačar attacks the Poggio

   A kilometre from the summit of the Poggio, 6.6km from the line, Pogačar detonates the move he has dreamed of for years, dragging Van der Poel, Ganna and Bettiol clear. He digs again over the top, but the elastic will not snap, and a dozen men tip into the descent together.

3. 33 km to go

   Mohorič rolls the dice

   At the foot of the plunge into Sanremo, Mohorič throws himself off the front to steal a few seconds, Van der Poel patrolling the chase behind. The move is smothered, and the sprinters wind up on the Lungomare.

4. 41 km to go

   Pidcock almost steals it

   Inside the final kilometre Tom Pidcock pushes clear and for a heartbeat looks like a Monument winner, before Lidl-Trek launch Pedersen and the fast men come roaring up the Via Roma behind him.

5. 5At the line

   Philipsen by a rim

   In the fastest Milan-Sanremo ever run, Jasper Philipsen and Michael Matthews come off opposite kerbs locked together, and the Belgian throws his bike to win his first Monument by the width of a tyre rim, Pogačar sweeping through for third.

The result