Milan-San Remo 2026

The road

At the start

The Monument the world champion lacks

Pavia, and 298 kilometres of Lombardy and Liguria to the Via Roma. Tadej Pogačar has been third here two years running and has remade the race in his own image — the Cipressa is decisive again because he made it so — yet the rainbow jersey still lacks this Monument. Mathieu van der Poel defends off Omloop and two Tirreno stage wins. Wout van Aert returns after two years away, his winter broken by a fractured ankle.

How it was won

1. 132 km to go

   Chaos in Imperia

   With 32km to run the front of the bunch piles up on the seafront: Pogačar, Van Aert, Jorgenson and Van der Poel all hit the deck. The world champion remounts fast, but the crash scatters half his rivals before the race has even reached the Cipressa.

2. 224 km to go

   Cipressa acceleration

   McNulty performs a masterpiece as he pulls his leader Pogačar back to the front. Pogačar doesn't need to recover - he surges away 2.6km from the top, 24km from home, shredding the peloton and burning off the last of the escapees before the coast road. Only Van der Poel and Pidcock can follow.

3. 39 km to go

   Poggio — Van der Poel cracks

   Seven hundred metres up the Poggio, Pogačar kicks and the defending champion Van der Poel is gone. Only Tom Pidcock can cling to the rainbow jersey as the two crest together with ten seconds on the chase.

4. 45 km to go

   Pidcock takes the descent

   Over the top the British descender flings himself down the Poggio into San Remo, Pogačar wary on his wheel. The gap holds; behind them Van der Poel is swallowed by the peloton.

5. 5At the line

   Struck down in the final metres

   On the Via Roma Pidcock leads it out, but in the last hundred metres Pogačar comes off his wheel and edges the Monument by half a wheel — a masterful, hard-fought Milan-San Remo, with Van Aert sprinting clear of the pack for third.

The result