Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) won the 2026 Milan-San Remo, beating Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) by half a wheel after dropping Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) on the Poggio.
Milan-San Remo Results
Milan - San Remo • Mar 21 • 294km
| Pos | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 | Tadej Pogačar | UADUAE Team Emirates-XRG | 6h 35' 49" |
| 🥈 | Tom Pidcock | Q36Q36.5 | s.t. |
| 🥉 | Wout van Aert | VISVisma-Lease a Bike | +4" |
| 4 | Mads Pedersen | LTKLidl-Trek | s.t. |
| 5 | Corbin Strong | NSNNSN | s.t. |
| 6 | Andrea Vendrame | JAYJayco-AlUla | s.t. |
| 7 | Jasper Stuyven | SQSSoudal-QuickStep | s.t. |
| 8 | Mathieu van der Poel | ADCAlpecin-Deceuninck | s.t. |
| 9 | Matteo Trentin | TUDTudor | s.t. |
| 10 | Edoardo Zambanini | TBVBahrain Victorious | s.t. |
But what preceded that was not the clean, scripted demolition UAE had planned. It was messier, more improvised, and in several respects more impressive than anything the team managed in last year's near-miss.
When Pogačar hit the deck around a left-hand corner in Imperia, his race should have been over. “When I crashed, for a second I thought it was all over” he said after the race. By the time he got back on his bike he was trailing the peloton by around 40 seconds with only a few kilometers to go before the base of the Cipressa. It was down to Florian Vermeersch and Felix Grossschartner to bring the world champion back and they did a monster performance to reduce the gap to 8 seconds by the start of the climb.
McNulty delivers the MVP performance
A rider arriving at the base of the Cipressa out of position in Milan-San Remo does not normally get a second chance. The climb is too short, the pace too high, the road too narrow for riders to move up easily.
Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) had different ideas. With Pogačar still off the back as the Cipressa began, McNulty drove the pace and created space for Pogačar to follow. Within two minutes, and 4.6km still to climb, Pogačar was back at the front. McNulty wasn't done there and continued to push the pace for another 40 seconds before handing over to Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) .
The rescue proved more critical than any single attack. Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) had already crashed out with 242km to go, and with Tim Wellens and Jhonatan Narváez absent from the roster, UAE's Cipressa lead-out train was thinner than planned. McNulty's effort was an improvisation that preserved the entire race strategy.
Del Toro was only on the front for 500m before Pogačar launched, Pidcock right on the wheel and van der Poel struggling to bridge across. Pogačar attacked again with 400 metres to the summit but couldn't shake the two behind him.
The Cipressa was covered in 8:57, tying the previous race record set in 2025. But even more impressively, Pogačar did the climb in 8:48. That came despite what appeared to be light headwind rather than the tailwind that powered last year's record-breaking assault. The chase group crossed the summit 25 seconds down.
Cipressa & Poggio Climb Times
2026 vs 2025 comparison
Climb | Distance | Record | 2025 | 2026 | Pogačar 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cipressa | |||||
| Poggio |
On the Poggio, the race became a direct test. Pogačar attacked immediately, with Pidcock glued to his wheel and Van der Poel unable to match the acceleration, finally being distanced. Finally Pogačar had achieved his goal of dropping van der Poel. Unfortunately for him, Pidcock was able to cover the attacks with relative ease. The Poggio was covered in 5:42, compared with 5:53 in 2025 and the strava record of 5:31.
Pidcock's persistence was what turned the finale from a solo victory ride into a sprint. He followed every acceleration on the Cipressa and the Poggio without taking a turn at the front until the descent, where Pogačar pushed hard to extend the gap. By the flamme rouge, 24 seconds separated the front pair from the chase.
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) attacked from behind, but it was too late. Pogačar led from one kilometre out and despite Pidcock trying to bait him into an early sprint, held on to win by half a wheel at the line.
In 2025, UAE engineered what was arguably the perfect Cipressa assault and Pogačar still could not shake Van der Poel. In 2026, things went wrong before the climbs even started, and Pogačar won anyway. After the race Pogačar said that if it wasn't for his teammates he would have skipped the Cipressa and ridden straight to the finish. The plan fell apart but the team executed perfectly to deliver a fourth monument. Only Roubaix remains.
Cover image credit: RCS/ Massimi Paolone/LaPresse
