Milan-San Remo 2024: Jasper Philipsen wins in frenetic sprint to the finish
The Belgian rider won the almost 300km race beating Michael Matthews and Tadej Pogačar in a photo finish on Saturday (17 March).
Belgium's Jasper Philipsen won the 115th edition of the Milan-San Remo, the first road cycling ‘Monument’ one-day race of the men's season, on Saturday (16 March).
The longest one-day classic of the men's professional road cycling season came to an exhilarating conclusion with Philipsen beating Michael Matthews and Tadej Pogačar in a photo finish.
The odds of successfully defending his title were fully stacked against the road race world champion, Mathieu van der Poel, who was looking to become the first rider since 2001 to claim back-to-back victories. Van der Poel finished among the top 10 riders who all finished at the same time.
Five-time Monuments winner Pogacar launched two attacks on the Poggio di San Remo with 6km remaining, but he could not establish a decisive lead with Van der Poel going with him on the descent.
The last five kilometres had all sorts of action, including attacks from Thomas Pidcock and Matteo Sobrero.
Philipsen, who won six stages of the Tour de France, raced to the biggest one-day race victory of his career in the fastest time ever of the classic, crossing the line in six hours, 14 minutes and 44 seconds (6:14:44).
Milan-San Remo is the first of cycling's five 'Monument' one-day races, along with the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaic, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and Giro di Lombardia.
The next race will be the Tour of Flanders, taking place on Sunday, 31 March.
Milan-San Remo 2024 results (top 10):
- Jasper Philipsen (BEL/ Alpecin-Deceuninck) 06:14:44
- Michael Matthews (AUS/Team Jayco-AlUla) +00
- Tadej Pogačar (SLO/UAE Team Emirates) +00
- Mads Pedersen (DEN/Lidl-Trek) +00
- Alberto Bettiol (ITA/EF Education-EasyPost) +00
- Matej Mohorič (SLO/Bahrain Victorious) +00
- Maxim van Gils (BEL/Lotto Dstny) +00
- Jasper Stuyven (BEL/ Lidl-Trek) +00
- Julian Alaphilippe (FRA/Soudal Quick-Step) +00
- Mathieu van der Poel (NED/Alpecin-Deceuninck) +00