Cycling-Philipsen wins Milan-Sanremo in photo finish

Deceuninck NV

16/03/2024 15:50

March 16 (Reuters) - Jasper Philipsen of
Alpecin-Deceuninck won the Milan-Sanremo in a photo finish on
Saturday to claim the first Monument of the season, a 288-km
ride from Pavia to Sanremo.
    In what had been billed as a battle between last year's
winner Mathieu van der Poel and five-times Monuments winner
Tadej Pogacar, it was Philipsen who surged ahead in the sprint
on the final kilometre to clinch victory after nearly six hours
and 15 minutes.
    Pogacar had launched an attack with 5.8km to go, with Van
der Poel chasing him on the final descent from the summit of the
Poggio before Bahrain Victorious's Matej Mohoric attempted an
attack of his own.
    However, the final kilometre saw Bora-Hansgrohe's Matteo
Sobrero and Ineos Grenadiers' Thomas Pidcock attempt to lead
before Belgian Philipsen took the win just ahead of
Jayco-AlUla's Michael Matthews while Pogacar was third for UAE
Team Emirates.
    Milan-Sanremo is the longest Monument race. The other
Monument races are the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix,
Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Giro di Lombardia.

 (Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Clare
Fallon)
 ((Rohith.Nair@thomsonreuters.com | Twitter: @RohithNair;))