The victory of the last Milan-Sanremo, after a breathtaking finale, went to an extraordinary Mathieu van der Poel, who with strength and strategy overcame Tadej Pogacar and Filippo Ganna on the final straight of Via Roma. At the center of fans' discussions were the performances, speed, and power reached on Poggio and Cipressa. While Tadej Pogacar did not cross the finish line first in the Spring Classic, he deserves credit for writing a new record, the fastest time ever on one of the two climbs of Milan-Sanremo. The data was published on Strava and authorized by the Slovenian himself, who, unlike in training, shares his recorded values from competitions. On Cipressa, the world champion went under the magical nine-minute threshold, also recording the fastest time ever in another important segment of the race.

As planned, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG riders pushed to the maximum on Cipressa, the penultimate climb of Milan-Sanremo. First with Tim Wellens and then with an unleashed Jhonatan Narvaez who launched Pogacar towards an absolute climbing record. In the end, the Slovenian recorded a time of 8 minutes and 59 seconds and his average speed was 37.6 kilometers per hour on a 5.6-kilometer climb with an average gradient of 4.3 percent.

Mathieu van der Poel did not share anything on Strava, but looking at what happened, the Dutchman did the same time as Pogacar. Filippo Ganna took two seconds more. The previous best time was set by Alexandre Gotchenkov and Gabriele Colombo in 1996, who climbed Cipressa in 9 minutes and 17 seconds. According to Strava, "Pogi" averaged 37.6 kilometers per hour on Cipressa, while according to his bike's computer, he reached a maximum speed of 50.4 kilometers per hour on the 4.5 percent gradient section.

One could have imagined that the pace would be slower on Poggio, but this was not the case, and in the first 1.8 kilometers of the final climb, the Slovenian, based on data recorded on Strava, set another record, with 3'01", improving by three seconds last year's time.

Poggio is a 3.6-kilometer climb at 4.1 percent, Pogacar and Van der Poel ultimately recorded a time of 5'45". The show was thrilling, but Pogacar could not be satisfied because he did not win, and regarding his time on Cipressa, the Slovenian is not particularly surprised and thinks he can improve further. "I did it like this, but I know there's still room for improvement: next time I'll climb Cipressa even faster."

So much for the analysis, then it's once again Van der Poel and Pogacar who shake things up. The first teases the Slovenian on social media, "Next year Cipressa in under 8 minutes?" and Tadej responds, "I'm analyzing it now, we can go a bit faster. Like 59 seconds..."

Too bad the next Sanremo is a year away: with these premises, it would be great if March 21, 2026 were already... tomorrow!