Following in Philipsen's footsteps? Milan mentions his inspiration for Milan-Sanremo, for which he trained specifically

There will be a lot of hustle and bustle on Via Roma in Sanremo as we gather the list of favorites for Milan-Sanremo. Tadej Pogacar, Mathieu van der Poel, defending champion Jasper Philipsen, Tom Pidcock, and Filippo Ganna showed on Monday after his time trial victory in the Tirreno-Adriatico that he is ready for the first Monument. After stage 2 in Italy, we will add Jonathan Milan as well—not because the Italian won a bunch sprint but because of what he said afterward to IDLProCycling.com, among others.

Milan won the fast sprint in Follonica quite easily. He took the initiative with Lidl-Trek and was the first to come out of the last corner, 250 meters from the finish line. From there, it was man-to-man, with Milan starting from the front and remaining in the lead. "I couldn't win here last year, but that was my first time. I know how to sprint now because I had last year's experience. My team also performed extremely well today; I'd like to thank them too," he said in the flash interview.

His lead-out with Edward Theuns, Jasper Stuyven, and Simone Consonni also proved to be world-class. "A fantastic victory after an almost perfect day," Milan concluded later in the press conference. "The lead-out was good after we had carefully studied the final kilometer. Of course, I still had to pull off a good sprint, but it all came down to that last corner. I couldn't have done it without my teammates; they believed in me completely. They were indispensable."

It was good that the Italian had the last corner engraved in his memory because the 250 meters that followed felt like an eternity. "When I came out of the corner first, I briefly thought, this is far, but it was just a long sprint to the finish line for everyone,'" he laughed. He didn't look back. "I only know I've won when I've crossed the finish line. I can imagine it was total chaos, but I didn't notice anything."

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Will Milan follow in Jasper Philipsen's footsteps in Milan-Sanremo?

Once the sprint had been discussed, we brought up Milan-Sanremo. Those who remembered knew that Jasper Philipsen won this stage in Follonica last year on behalf of Alpecin-Deceuninck. He won his first Monument in the Via Roma a week and a half later. "I know, last year, the victory in Follonica brought him luck," he said with a laugh in Milan. "Although it wasn't luck in Sanremo, Jasper performed a super race. We'll see what I can do later."

Like his compatriot and buddy Ganna, Milan threw his track ambitions overboard to be good in La Primavera. "Like him, I didn't ride on the track last winter. Maybe I'll return after Paris-Roubaix, but I won't be doing track races for the next two years," he said adamantly. Instead, Milan did some serious climbing training. "We worked hard this winter on the sprint, but I also trained hard to become a better climber, especially on four or five kilometers climbs."

So, climbs like the Cipressa and Poggio? He doesn't say it out loud, but that is what he means. "It would be nice if I suffered a little less on the climbs, so I train longer and climb much more. Mentally, I have also improved a bit," says Milan, who, like Ganna, likes to win big in Milan-Sanremo. His cycling buddy came second in 2023; can Milan do the same? "Ganna is a better climber and, therefore, one of the strongest riders for Milan-Sanremo. But he is an inspiration. I will try to come out of Tirreno fit, and we will compete with a strong team."

Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email: [email protected])     

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