Van der Poel, watch Out: INEOS unveils Ganna's strategy for Milan-San Remo and hopes for Pogacar as ally in Roubaix

Strade Bianche is on the schedule this weekend, but once we have left the Tuscan roads behind us on Saturday, it will only be two weeks until the start of this year's first Monument. Milan-San Remo has the potential to be a battle between Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar. Still, the INEOS Grenadiers are pushing Filippo Ganna, head of the pack, a very important outsider.

Ganna, now 28, said this winter that after the Olympic Games in Paris, he would focus fully on road cycling for a few years. He sacrificed too much in recent years to compete for Italy's gold on the track. 2025 is the first year that Ganna wants to compete exclusively in road races, with Milan Sanremo on Saturday, March 22, as his first important event.

The Italian super-athlete has already appeared in the Star of Bessèges and ridden in the Figueira Champions Classic and the Tour of the Algarve. In the Portuguese stage race, he even thought he could win the stage on day one and thus take the first leader's jersey, but the majority of the peloton had taken a wrong turn, so the finish was considered invalid. Ganna showed himself on the final day by finishing fourteenth in a climbing time trial.

Read more below the photo.

Ganna (right) trained hard this winter

How does Ganna plan to win Milan-Sanremo?

The warm-up is now over. Ganna will start two important races, Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-Sanremo. La Primavera is the race in which Ganna finished second in 2023, behind Mathieu van der Poel. It was the same year as a sixth place in Paris-Roubaix, his other big goal this spring. Ganna's coach, Dario Cioni, tells Bici that nothing is left to chance. "He did two training camps in Gran Canaria, where the weather is better, and he could concentrate fully on his work without missing a single day."

"He has trained hard, and the test results are positive," he says confidently. "Now the big question is whether we have done everything right. We were able to take a completely different approach due to the lack of track cycling. Last year, we started a bit more gradually because the main goal was later in the Olympics season. This year, Filippo is focusing one hundred percent on the classics, as we did in 2023. The metrics are also more in line with that year."

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Filippo Ganna

Ganna with Pogacar as an ally in Paris-Roubaix?

That looks promising because the 2023 version of Ganna was perfect. Before he took second place in Sanremo, he finished third in the Algarve, won the time trial in Tirreno, and finished tenth in E3. "We have planned a route recon for Milan-Sanremo and Paris-Roubaix, but that will be after Tirreno-Adriatico. After the first block of classics, we will head to Roubaix," Cioni said." Filippo has learned a lot from his 2023 campaign."

Can Ganna beat top favorites like Pogacar and Van der Poel, and in Roubaix, Van der Poel and Wout van Aert? And then Pogacar might also participate in Roubaix... "That would be an extra competitor to watch, but perhaps also an extra ally. If someone attacks, Pogacar could be an important man to help in the chase."

In Sanremo, Ganna will not have to expect support from UAE Team Emirates and Pogacar. It will be man-to-man there. "The most important point will be the foot of the Cipressa; it will even be fundamental. You have to be at the front there because, with today's speeds, it is challenging to move up. We have confidence in Filippo; we have already seen his good form this year."

Read also

Preview of Strade Bianche 2025 | Pogacar can show off his skills again, Van Aert, Van der Poel, Evenepoel and Vingegaard are absent

Mathieu van der Poel opens 2025 with a victory in Le Samyn, but why did he use such a crazy - yet effective - sprint tactic?

"Don’t be two minutes late"; Winter with Van der Poel was reality check for Philipsen

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