At this point let's do this: everyone can find the words they want. And let that be the end of it. Sure, it's a hell of a job finding new ones when we have Teddy in the way. Or maybe yes, a few still remain, because by knocking down his taboo, his impossible dream, his sweet obsession as a boy champion, Teddy manages to invent a completely new way, after having already invented them all.

The great novelty of Sanremo lies in the abolition of boredom. But yes, the flaw that the picky ones always throw at him, this monotony of the overbearing and humiliating champion, who goes off at sixty, seventy, eighty kilometers and who sees him again: well, the tedious Teddy format this time is completely turned upside down. Credit to Sanremo, its diabolical unpredictability and its sadistic meanness. But what course modifications, but what upheaval of the finale, but what hardening in the style of the Northern classics: Sanremo proves once again to be unique and for this reason untouchable, hands off Sanremo, because nothing like it has ever existed and nothing similar exists anywhere in the entire cycling world.

A simple, good, healthy crash is enough to transform the usual boring meatloaf of seven hours to the foot of the Poggio into the most spectacular and gripping challenge (as our TikTok generation kids like to say) of the contemporary era. Teddy crashes at the exit of Imperia, Van Aert crashes behind him, Van Der Poel crashes right there and everything changes. Flash, lightning strike, electric shock: drowsiness lifts and high-class show takes center stage. Everything comes down to whether Teddy will manage to get back this time, and then be the good Teddy for the knockout attack, and then possibly still be the Teddy in good shape for a great sprint.

That's the story, he interprets it like the hero of the best stories. Yes, he gets back on the Cipressa – which has to go at double pace to climb back to the front and impose the forcing with his teammates –, then he attacks taking Pidcock and Van Der Poel with him, then he raises hell on the Poggio remaining alone with a superb Pidcock, thus throwing on the table like a Marzullo of the Riviera the final big question: but after all this overdoing, will Teddy really manage to sprint against Pidcock who in a sprint is quite a somebody?

It happens, sometimes it happens, when the phenomenon of phenomena is involved: Teddy puts an extra load on top, goes to the sprint against the tough customer putting himself in front, but what does he do, where does he go, thus giving him a fatal advantage...

I'm being honest: thanks to the powerful means and efficiency of the organization, which places televisions for the press after the finish line without a single image of Sanremo, I watch the last kilometer managing myself next to Mauro Gianetti, the superboss of UAE, Andrea Agostini, the vice-boss, and Vincenzo Nibali, ambassador of good cycling, all equipped with a smartphone connected to the right app. I watch the incredible sprint of the one in front who doesn't give in and the one behind who seeks desperate comeback, but I learn the winner's name only from the jubilation that breaks out between Gianetti and Agostini, immediately overwhelmed by the delirious men of their team.

It's Teddy's new masterpiece, this is it. Gianetti says it well: "Of all our Pogacar's victories, this one has a very particular flavor: for how much he cared about it, he who loves impossible challenges, and for how it had gone, after that crash. But this is Teddy, there's no way to make life difficult for him to see him become a giant...".

The invincible closes the circle. In the race least suited and least favorable to his way of being. At the sixth attempt, in the most beautiful and greatest style. For time immemorial, one hasn't seen a Sanremo so spectacular and prestigious, let it be said objectively, in all serenity. I'm not saying it because Teddy has enchanted me for years, I would say it anyway, also because here we're dealing with the greatness of an entire generation. It's the rebellious generation that sends packing the dogma of short-nosed cycling of recent decades – woe to breakaways from far away, woe to squeezing yourself in the grand tours and classics, woe to racing from January to October, woe to doing everything and always waiting for the last kilometer –, punctually presenting on the decisive ring the best of the best, in this case the Pidcocks, the Van Aerts (very high rating, third after the crash with Teddy), the same Van Der Poels.

Sanremo could have become the Achilles heel in the stratospheric career of the invincible Teddy. It was becoming one, year after year. Instead no. It won't be. Teddy also wins the obsession. He closes the missing link.

Yes, it's true, Roubaix is still missing. Only Roubaix is missing. The last challenge, the last obsession. Before sitting on the throne of the strongest of all time.