Matej Mohoric’s monumental Milan-San Remo victory shows Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic are human after all

A Tadej Pogacar victory on the Ligurian coast could have killed cycling. It may sound like a bit of an overstatement but it’s probably true. Already a winner in his previous two Monuments, and already a winner in his first three WorldTour races of the season, Pogacar could have strangled the sport into submission with another display of dominance under the Italian sun.

When his UAE Team Emirates squad decimated the field on the Cipressa, it really did look like the heavy-handed foreplay to yet another Pogacar climax. And where’s the fun in that? Ad/> The 23-year-old superstar attacked again and again on the Poggio – just as we knew he would. But those informed pundits who predicted that the final climb would prove neither long enough nor steep enough for Pogacar to distance his rivals were proved correct.

Even Primoz Roglic had a pop at the midway point while his compatriot was catching his breath – another rider whose uphill accelerations usually sound the death knell to all those around him. Milano — Sanremo'It is monumental' — Breakaway reaction to Mohoric triumph at Milan-San RemoAN HOUR AGO Fast forward a few weeks and these same two riders will probably carve up their rivals employing such tactics in the Ardennes. The more arduous Mur de Huy, and Cotes de la Redoute and de Saint-Nicolas are more amenable to widespread Pogcineration or Roglafication – and that’s before we shift focus to the long Alpine and Pyrenean grinds of the Tour.