Milan-San Remo's startlist has been rewritten in the final days before Saturday's race – while we await the final official startlist – with illness and injury claiming riders from several major teams. The withdrawals do more than thin the field. They change how at least three squads will approach the 290km Monument.
The biggest tactical shifts involve Visma-Lease a Bike, Lidl-Trek and Alpecin-Premier Tech, each of which has lost a key piece and been forced to reconfigure around whoever remains.
Some of the startlists teased on social media so far
Brennan out, Campenaerts in at Visma
Matthew Brennan, who won Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne earlier this spring, is out of Milan-Sanremo with illness. Victor Campenaerts replaces him. The change was reported across multiple outlets on Friday morning, including Cycling Weekly and HLN.
Brennan was Visma's sprint option. Without him, the team no longer has a rider capable of contesting a bunch finish, which turns the squad into a full service operation for Wout van Aert. Jasper Philipsen had already tipped Van Aert as a dark horse for Saturday, and now the Visma lineup is built entirely around delivering on that possibility rather than hedging with a secondary card.
Pedersen's surprise return flips Lidl-Trek's outlook
Jonathan Milan is out of Lidl-Trek's squad after falling ill following Tirreno-Adriatico. His replacement is Mads Pedersen, who returns to racing just six weeks after breaking his left wrist and right collarbone in a crash at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana on February 4.
As recently as March 15, team director Kim Andersen told Sporza that Milan-Sanremo would "definitely come too soon" for Pedersen.
It's not clear if Milan's illness influenced the decision for an early return – Pedersen has been training on the bike since mid-February and attended a Mallorca camp with the team, but the wrist fracture remains a concern. "It's still a complicated fracture and the bones in the hand haven't healed yet," Pedersen said earlier this month, per IDLprocycling. "The splint I had was only to keep everything in place, and now it needs to heal properly again."
On a team podcast, Pedersen had also been uncertain about a return. "It's a shame, but we don't know how the body will react," he said. "If I make it to the Classics, those will be my first races. It is a big question mark. But if we didn't believe in it, I wouldn't be killing myself on the exercise bike."
Saturday will now be that first race. Lidl-Trek goes from having no credible finisher to fielding a three-time Gent-Wevelgem winner with podium finishes in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. Whether his body cooperates over 290km is the main question.
2026 Milan-San Remo Provisional Startlist
Groves omitted from Alpecin's squad
Kaden Groves has not been selected by Alpecin-Premier Tech due to knee problems. His absence removes the team's secondary sprint option alongside Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen.
The squad is now configured entirely around delivering Van der Poel to the business end of the race, with riders including Dillier, Marsman, Planckaert, Verstrynge and Gogl filling support roles. It aligns with Philipsen's comments from earlier in the week about playing a "defensive role" on Saturday. If Van der Poel is isolated or outmanoeuvred on the Poggio, Alpecin have no fallback option for a group sprint.
UAE's earlier reshuffle
Tim Wellens and Jhonatan Narváez were both confirmed out of UAE Team Emirates earlier in the week through injury, forcing a squad rebuild around Tadej Pogačar. That reshuffle brought in McNulty, Jan Christen and Vermeersch among others.
The common thread
Illness has been the primary disruptor. Milan, Brennan and Groves have all been lost to sickness or physical problems in the final stretch before the race, while UAE's changes came through injury. The pattern is familiar for early-season racing, but the concentration of withdrawals this close to the start has pushed several teams away from their initial tactical plans.
Cover image credit: Lidl-Trek/hardycc
