Everyone will be watching Pogacar on Saturday, but Van Hooydonck sees it differently: "It is not hard enough for him"

A lot has already been written about who will be the top favorite for Milan-Sanremo tomorrow. While there is a lot of talk about Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel, Jonathan Milan, Mads Pedersen, and Filippo Ganna, among others, are also in top form. Everything depends on the race situation, but Pogacar will undoubtedly be one of the best riders in the race. However, former cyclist Nathan Van Hooydonck doubts that the Slovenian will win La Primavera.

"It's not hard enough for Pogacar," Van Hooydonck begins his story at Tntsports.uk. "He's definitely the strongest rider of his generation, the most versatile rider of his generation, but this race is super long, the concentration of difficulty is completely towards the final [parts of the race]."

However, the fact that the race is not hard enough for the Slovenian is not the only reason why it will be challenging to win Milan-Sanremo, according to the former Visma | Lease a Bike rider. "It's difficult, but not too difficult, and a lot of riders are able to survive the first attack of Pogacar, some people are even able to match that attack."

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Pogacar was on the podium last year

Adam Blythe agrees that it will be difficult for Pogacar

According to former cyclist Adam Blythe, it will also be difficult for the current world champion, but he thinks it's impressive that the Slovenian keeps trying. "He's trying [to win it], he tries every year. The last two years, he's really tried on there to split things up. But there's such a gap between the climbs where it's on the coast, and there's not enough climbing on there to make it hard."

According to the Brit, the main disadvantage is that the Cipressa and the Poggio are a little too far apart. "For me, that's his problem. If it was closer together, he could attack earlier on the Cipressa. But I think there's 15 or 11 kilometres in between those climbs. It's a chance for him to recover, but it's also a chance for the sprinters to recover as well."

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Pogacar has already scouted the final of Milan-Sanremo well

UAE must ensure Pogacar can win Milan-Sanremo

Nevertheless, Van Hooydonck, who rode La Primavera three times himself, does see Pogacar winning on the Via Roma one day. "He can definitely win it. The Cipressa is the climb coming just before the Poggio, but the Cipressa is hard enough if you can ride a very fast pace from the bottom to the top. Tadej Pogacar cannot do it by himself, he needs his team to do so. His team needs to pace as fast as possible from the bottom to the top and that's how you can put the different sprinters under pressure and you can already distance them."

"Once he gets his teammates over the Cipressa and onto the Poggio, they can again start riding a very, very fast pace, and then he can launch the decisive attack," the Belgian indicates. A hard race is therefore very important for Pogacar if he wants to have a chance at victory.

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