Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) a remporté ce samedi une 116e édition complétement folle de Milano-Sanremo. Après avoir répondu à toutes les attaques de Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates XRG), Mathieu van der Poel a dominé Filippo Ganna (INEOS) et le champion du monde au sprint. C'est le septième Monument du Néerlandais, sa seconde victoire sur la Primavera.
Video : @Milano_Sanremo
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SportTranscription
00:00Are you in the best shape of your life?
00:10One of the best, I think.
00:13I felt really good in Torino, but I knew with one week of rest I would be at my best, yes.
00:26Congratulations, on the Sipresa and the Pogacar, it went very hard of course with Pogacar.
00:33Can you explain how many you suffered over there and did you expect this already, that
00:41Pogacar would do this?
00:45To be honest, I was quite confident I could follow on the Pogacar.
00:48I think Sipresa was harder, but then of course, you know he's going to try and drop us, but
01:01it's very difficult on a climb like Pogacar, and also he had to go full on Sipresa already
01:06to make this group happen.
01:09I felt pretty good, but you never know of course, but I was confident that I could follow.
01:19You looked quite emotional at the end, it was a very hard win, can you speak about that a little bit?
01:32For sure, for me the first three, four hours were horrible again today.
01:37I had this in Torino already all weekend, again today, and I was so happy when we passed
01:43the tunnel on Turquino that I saw some sunshine and the temperature went up again and I started
01:48to feel better and better alongside the coast.
01:55I think that's also one of the reasons why we could make the effort on Sipresa with three.
02:02Of course, the first hours, it's maybe not the hardest ones, but with these weather conditions
02:08it really gets to your system and it's quite hard on the body as well.
02:14The wind of course was really good on Sipresa for the plan of UAE, but I was quite surprised
02:23and special as well to be only three riders on top of Sipresa.
02:27You've beat Taddej seven times, he's beat you seven times, we all say that you've got
02:34this rivalry with Wout, but actually it's your main rivalry with Taddej.
02:40How do you manage to beat him so much?
02:43Not only mine, I think Taddej is everybody's rival.
02:46If you can beat him, you're close to victory nowadays.
02:50It's impressive, he's not only one of the best classic riders, but also one of the best
02:56Grand Tour riders, so he is a generational talent for sure.
03:02I'm happy to race against him, and especially if you beat him, it's quite special.
03:10Mathieu, congrats.
03:11When you talked about the race before the race, it sounded like if you win here, it's
03:16like a small extra in your career.
03:18After the race, how proud are you about this win and how proud are you about the performance
03:22and the race that you guys showed today?
03:26Yeah, I'm very happy and proud to win, of course.
03:31For a second time, every monument is special, but I think this one is maybe a bit extra
03:37special because of the way the race developed.
03:41The team was incredible, like they always are on the crucial points.
03:48I think we can be proud of the performance, also to win it three times in a row as a team
03:53is maybe something that never happened yet and maybe will never happen again.
03:58I think also this is something to cherish.
04:02Next.
04:04Congratulations on the Pogacar, you tried to drop Pogacar.
04:08Was it important by a psychological point of view or were you trying to go solo?
04:13No, I really tried to go solo because you never know in a sprint like this after such
04:18a hard race.
04:19Pogacar is definitely not slow, also Filippo is quite fast in a sprint and after a race
04:25like this, it's not really who's the fastest, but who's the strongest at the end.
04:30I knew he went all out a couple of times to drop me and I tried to break him a bit to
04:36counterattack, but he was strong enough to respond.
04:39When we talked on Tuesday, you said that Villaroma can be even more special compared to Velodrome
04:49or Roubaix because you never know really the real end that you want.
04:54Today was the case again, so can you tell us a little bit more about your emotion on
05:01the finish line?
05:03Like I said, it was pretty emotional just because the race was also so hard and it's
05:10difficult to believe to win another monument again.
05:14It just keeps going for me and for the team and it's not something we should take for
05:19granted for sure.
05:22Yet another year we take a monument, it's something to be proud of.
05:27Turing, one of the counterattacks to Pogacar, maybe if I'm right on the Cipressa, you said
05:36something to Pogacar or the opposite.
05:39What did you say?
05:41I have no idea.
05:42I think he said something to me on top of Poggio, but I was really on the limit so I
05:47didn't understand, so you have to ask him.
05:52Can you bring us inside the last 500 metres because Ghana came back, but I feel like when
06:02you're in a close group, two or three people, you can always play the right cards.
06:09You're always the one who freezes the opponent, you're the one who gets ahead first and takes
06:14the win.
06:15Is that right?
06:17I think I just surprised them by launching my sprint at the 300 metre sign.
06:21I think everybody assumes and thinks that a short sprint is the best for me because
06:28it worked a couple of times.
06:30I knew this was already during winter, I knew this was something I could use in my advantage
06:36because nobody would expect me to launch a sprint from so far away actually.
06:41I think I surprised them a bit there and of course you also need the legs to launch a
06:45sprint from so far and keep going.
06:50I think this was quite an important key point to win today.
06:58Can you tell me a little bit more what a week of rest is for you, because a lot of riders
07:03say I have a week rest and then I'm better, but it seems like you have this special gen
07:08where you are extremely good after a week of rest.
07:11What are you doing during this week?
07:15It's not a week of rest of course, but on Monday I was quite tired, so I did one hour
07:24on the bike, Tuesday I did three hours and Wednesday I did a recon of Ronde van Vlaanderen
07:30for four hours, alone and quite hard.
07:34Then I took two days off again, just riding my bike.
07:39After a while you do it a bit on feeling and you know what to do to be good, but I don't
07:45know, I just like the feeling of going towards a one-day race.
07:51The couple of last years we collected enough data to know what to do, so that's also one
07:58of the reasons I did Tireno, because we know I need a race like this to be in my best shape
08:03for a race like today.
08:07You had several good seasons, but what makes you say this is maybe the best season?
08:13What is the difference if you compare with all the other seasons?
08:17I don't know, I trained more than ever this winter and I feel like I can manage it, so
08:23maybe that's a key point, but for sure it won't be like this every year.
08:30I feel I'm just a bit stronger again, but you never know.
08:35It's very nice to win this race, but next week it can be a different story already.
08:41I think we did everything we had to do to be in the best possible shape.
08:49Mathieu, what was the hardest part of the race for you today?
08:54Today, at one point I attacked a second time on the Peugeot, there was a small gap.
08:59Was it there or was it another moment?
09:02No, it was Cipresa, which was for me the hardest part of the race, probably for everybody if
09:12you see what happens there.
09:15The pace was quite incredible from the bottom actually when Tim Welles started pulling until
09:21the top was very, very hard, but I felt when we came down I still had good enough legs
09:32to try and follow on Peugeot.
09:35Mathieu, how will you reward yourself after a success like this?
09:41Any special gift to yourself, any special food, a cigar?
09:46I don't know.
09:48No, not really.
09:51I just look forward to eating something with the team, just nothing special.
09:57There are still a lot of races to come, but for sure we try to enjoy the moment a bit
10:03more than we used to.
10:05Like I said, it's not something that is normal, I think, and it's also something that will
10:12stop at one point, so we have to enjoy it.
10:15Mathieu, you still need to win Liège and Ilambardia to complete the set.
10:21How much of a goal is that for you and will you consider dropping some weight to be able
10:25to compete in these two races?
10:27No, I focus on this.
10:30I think it's quite impossible at the moment as well to win against riders like Taddei
10:34and Remco in these kind of races.
10:39Maybe not impossible, but for sure I have to be lucky and I think it's better for me
10:48to just focus on the races that I'm best at and try to win these as much as possible.
10:56Mathieu, in what way do you think this win is also psychological important in what's
11:02coming on with you competing against Taddei?
11:07I think not so much.
11:09We all know Saint-Rémy is a special race.
11:11I think Flanders, for example, is way harder and he has more occasions and more climbs
11:18to try and drop me.
11:20I know from two years ago how strong he is there, so I still know that it's going to
11:25be very difficult to beat him.
11:27Also today, if you see how he rides, it's impressive.
11:31So it will be difficult to beat him, but we will try.
11:35Last question.
11:36Mathieu, Pogba is expected to announce about Paris-Roubaix in the next few days.
11:41We expect him to race.
11:42I don't know if you do and what do you think will happen?
11:44Is that your race, your terrain and what will happen?
11:48I don't know.
11:50I said it a couple of times already.
11:53He showed in the Tour de France stage in Roubaix how good he is on the cobble.
11:57For sure, he's capable of winning it.
12:00It won't be easy, but it's never easy.
12:03I think he makes a chance, yes.
12:06Final question now.
12:08Mathieu, the last question.
12:10Consider a person looking at the last 30 minutes of this race on TV with you, Pogba,
12:17it's the best show that cycling nowadays can offer to a person.
12:25Yes, I've watched this race already a lot of times on television and I never saw this
12:30on the press, but of course it's more today making this happen than me.
12:36I was the one following.
12:40He's so strong and he knows he has to try something to win this race.
12:44I think they did a perfect job, actually, because it's just in the details and if my
12:49legs were just a bit less and he drops me on Poggio, it's a success for them.
12:55I think they did an amazing job and for sure he will try it every year and he will probably
13:02make it work one year to win this race.