After Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) was unable to break away decisively with his attack on the Poggio, the Slovenian came into the final kilometres with a group of twelve riders. First Matteo Sobrero (Bora-Hansgrohe) tried to escape to the front, but was then caught by Tom Pidcock. The rider from Ineos Grenadiers was able to open up a small gap in the final kilometre, but was ultimately unable to bring his advantage to the finish. Shortly before the finish, Michael Matthews (Team Jayco-AlUla) entered the final sprint, overtaking the Briton with Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) on his wheel. The Belgian took off at the right moment and crossed the finish line centimetres ahead of the Australian thanks to his tiger's leap. Philipsen thus wins the first cycling monument of 2024.
Pogacar and van der Poel can't pull away on the Poggio
On the final climb of the race - the Poggio - Tadej Pogacar came out and launched his attack 6.5 kilometres before the finish. Initially, his rivals around Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Victrious) and Tom Pidock were able to counterattack and stay behind the top favourite. Shortly before the finish, however, Pogacar stepped up the pace again, this time opening up a small gap. Only Mathieu van der Poel was able to close it with a show of strength. However, the gap between the two leaders was not big enough on the other riders, so that a group of twelve rolled together on the following descent and set off on the final kilometres. Among them were the sprint-strong riders around Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Michael Matthews and Jasper Philipsen. In the end, Matthews and Philipsen had the freshest legs, with Philipsen pulling ahead of the Australian in the final sprint at the last moment.
It's unbelievable. I can't comprehend it! A monument is something you dream about. I'm also very proud of Mathieu van der Poel, who did an incredible job in the final. We won the race as a team. - Jasper Philipsen in the winner interview
Milan-San Remo 2024 - Results: The top 10
- Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 6:14:44
- Michael Matthews (Team Jayco-AlUla) +0:00
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) +0:00
- Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) +0:00
- Alberto Bettiol (EF Education EasyPost) +0:00
- Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:00
- Maxim Van Gils (Lotto-Dstny) +0:00
- Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) +0:00
- Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal - Quick Step) +0:00
- Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +0:00
We had a plan and we stuck to it. We didn't miss much, maybe 10 per cent on the Cipressa climb. It wasn't hard enough for us. My two starts weren't hard enough either, although my legs felt good. I then gave everything to finish third. It was close. The podium was the best we could achieve today. - Tadej Pogacar on Eurosport
How Milan-San Remo 2024 went
On the 288 kilometres from Pavia to San Remo, the riders experienced the first 17 bumpy kilometres. Then a group of eleven managed to break away from the peloton - including Davide Bais (Polti-Kometa), Alessandro Tonelli (VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizane) and Sergio Samitier (Movistar) formed the leading group of the day. The riders were quickly able to pull away to one and a half minutes. A short time later, Lorenzo Germani (Groupama-FDJ) dropped back from this group, leaving only ten riders at the front.
Lidl-Trek and Alpecin-Deceuninck leave little room for the escapees
In the peloton, the teams Lidl-Trek for Mads Pedersen and Alpecin-Deceuninck for Mathieu van der Poel were mainly responsible for the chase. Tadej Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates, on the other hand, initially hid in the peloton and left the pace work to the other teams. The peloton gave the breakaway a maximum lead of just under three minutes, which they maintained for a long time - over time, the peloton had problems getting closer to the leading group.
Laporte gets into trouble early
With 50 kilometres to go, Capo Melo and Capo Cervo were the first small climbs on which UAE Team Emirates pushed the pace so that the breakaway's buffer shrank to less than one and a half minutes. On the following Capo Berta, the breakaway group was reduced to nine riders, and the peloton also suffered its first casualties due to the high pace: both Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) and Christophe Laporte (Visma | Lease a Bike) ran into problems and dropped out of the fight for the stage win.
UAE Team Emirates ups the tempo again at the Cipressa
UAE Team Emirates took command at the Cipressa and brought its riders into position: Alessandro Covi and Isaac del Torro in particular ensured that the peloton shrank to around 35 riders. The breakaway's lead also diminished more and more. On the subsequent descent, many of the remaining riders in the leading group were dropped. Davide Bais was the only one to fight for his narrow lead over the peloton until shortly before the foot of the Poggio. Then the valiantly fighting Italian was also swallowed up.
The group of favourites tackle the final kilometres together
After the double attack on the Poggio by Tadej Pogacar, a twelve-man group came together for the final kilometres. At first it looked as if Tom Pidcock would be able to break away from the rest of the field, but then the sprinters closed in on the Briton again. In the end, Philipsen broke away at the right moment and overtook Michael Matthews in the final metres.
Milan-San Remo 2024 at record speed
Philipsen thus secures his first triumph in a cycling monument. It was the fastest Milan-San Remo in history: with an average speed of 46.1 km/h, no other edition of the monument has ever been faster.
