Van der Poel before Milan San Remo: "I have to be at 110% to beat Pogacar"

Mathieu van der Poel has managed to distance himself from the pressure and has remained in a discreet second place at the beginning of this campaign, however, in a recent interview the Dutchman does not hide: he wants to win the Milan-San Remo after sacrificing himself for his teammate Jasper Philipsen in last year's edition.

Mathieu van der Poel arrives in Italy with a clear objective: to achieve his second Milan-San Remo

Although it may seem that a Dutch classics rider like Mathieu van der Poel has his heart set on the cobblestone races, the truth is that the aura that the Milan-San Remo maintains as the most difficult monument to conquer makes him the favorite of the Alpecin-Deceuninck cyclist as he expressed in a joint interview granted to the well-known media outlets CyclingNews, L'Gazzetta dello Sport and L'Equipe just before traveling to Italy for the La Primavera race.

"The Milan-San Remo is one of the races that I loved to watch as a child, because you never know what's going to happen. Winning the Paris-Roubaix is super special, but I think winning on the Via Roma is more emotional. In the Milan-San Remo you don't know until you reach the last stretch or the last meters".

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A Mathieu van der Poel who has taken things very calmly at the beginning of this campaign after his dominant winter in cyclocross. This did not prevent him from winning with absolute clarity in his first race, the Ename Samyn Classic. However, both in Tirreno-Adriatico and this last week when he has been training in Belgium, Mathieu van der Poel has stayed away from the spotlight, letting the attention focus on Tadej Pogacar who has dominated wherever he has gone at the beginning of the season.

Mathieu van der Poel is not interested in fostering rivalry with Tadej Pogacar, a cyclist with whom he has even been seen training "I have a good relationship with him and I don't think too much about rivalry. I just try to be in the best possible shape in the races". However, he does not hide that in the Milan-San Remo he will have to try to stay with Pogacar if he decides to seek a surprise with a move on the Cipressa, where the forecasts announce favorable wind on Saturday so UAE Team Emirates-XRG could try to break the race by beating the ascent record, 9 minutes 19 seconds, dating back to 1996.

"Nothing is impossible. If there is a headwind on the Cipressa, it can't be done, but with a tailwind, full gas, maybe, although they will have to sacrifice the whole team" explained Van der Poel about this distant possibility in the resolution of the Milan-San Remo.

Although the rival to beat is Tadej Pogacar, Van der Poel does not underestimate other contenders for victory such as Mads Pedersen and, above all, Filippo Ganna of whom he stated "in great shape he is a threat due to the power of his attacks and, moreover, he has great sprinting ability towards the end. In recent years he was already one of the strongest riders on the Poggio. He looks in good shape. It's not just about Pogacar and me".

Whether he wins or not, Mathieu van der Poel puts everything into perspective at a point in his sporting career where he has already won practically everything that can be won. When the race is over, he will simply take a plane to Belgium and most likely spend Sunday morning enjoying the peace and tranquility that golf brings him "it's just what I need after a great race. My little reward, win or lose".