The advice points to timing, not force.
Milan, March 2026
Eddy Merckx has offered Tadej Pogačar a clear piece of advice ahead of Milan-San Remo: if he wants to beat Mathieu van der Poel, the decisive move should come on the Poggio, not earlier in the race. The remark arrives as anticipation builds around another expected showdown between two of the sport’s biggest figures, with Pogačar again chasing a first victory in the one Monument that continues to resist him.
Merckx’s reading is rooted in the specific logic of Milan-San Remo, a race in which timing often matters more than raw aggression. The Belgian, who still holds the record with seven wins in the Classicissima, argued that Pogačar needs to distance Van der Poel before the finish because a direct run to Via Roma would favour the Dutch rider. In that sense, the advice is less about attacking often than about attacking at the exact point where the effort can become irreversible.
The Poggio occupies a special place in that calculation. It is the final major climb of the race, short enough to invite explosive moves but close enough to the finish to make separation difficult to reverse. For Merckx, that makes it the most suitable terrain for Pogačar to try to break Van der Poel, whose speed and race instinct remain major assets if the contenders arrive together late in the day. The warning is straightforward: if they are still side by side after nearly 300 kilometres, the balance tilts toward Van der Poel.
That advice also reflects the broader shape of the rivalry. Pogačar has repeatedly arrived at Milan-San Remo with the strongest climbing credentials and with the ambition to reshape the race, yet the final result has continued to slip away. Van der Poel, by contrast, has shown a rare capacity to survive the Slovenian’s hardest efforts and still remain decisive when the race opens in the closing kilometres. The tactical question, then, is not whether Pogačar can make the race hard. It is whether he can make it hard in a way that finally excludes the one rival most likely to withstand it.
The discussion is especially relevant this year because Van der Poel arrives in strong form after a highly visible start to the campaign. That has only reinforced the sense that Pogačar cannot afford to rely on a finish in which his rival remains in contact. Merckx’s point is therefore not simply tactical in a narrow sense. It is a reading of comparative strengths. Pogačar has to turn the race into a selective climbing effort late enough to matter, but early enough to prevent Van der Poel from carrying his speed into the final approach.
Milan-San Remo has always resisted simple formulas. It is a Monument shaped by distance, positioning, weather, tension, and the peculiar difficulty of creating decisive gaps after so many hours of racing. That is what makes the Poggio such a charged location in the race’s mythology. It is often the last real chance to impose difference before instinct, handling, and finishing speed take over. Merckx’s advice acknowledges that reality. In his view, Pogačar does not need to reinvent the race. He needs to choose the one moment where his strengths can alter its outcome.
The comment also reveals how seriously the sport continues to read this duel. When Merckx speaks about Milan-San Remo, he does so with unmatched historical authority, but the fact that his advice is framed around Van der Poel says as much about the present as it does about the past. For all of Pogačar’s victories elsewhere, this race still appears to depend on solving one central problem: how to detach a rider who is unusually hard to drop and particularly dangerous when the finish remains open.
That is why the tactical focus has narrowed so sharply around the Poggio. It is not only a climb. It is the last meaningful line between control and uncertainty, between a calculated selection and a finale shaped by survival and speed. If Pogačar is to win Milan-San Remo at last, Merckx’s message is that the move must come there, with enough force to turn advantage into separation before Van der Poel can carry the race toward his preferred terrain.
Phoenix24: clarity in the grey zone. / Phoenix24: clarity in the grey zone.