De Lie skips San Remo to avoid Pogacar and Van der Poel - 'I wouldn’t stand a chance'

Speaking to HLN at the Volta ao Algarve the 23-year-old Belgium was clear in his reasoning to not show up at Milan-San Remo.

“Unless Pogačar and Van der Poel pull out sick five days beforehand,” De Lie said, “I’m not going.”

Pressed on the point, he doubled down. “I have to be realistic. With them at the start, I have no chance,” he said. “They ride the Cipressa a minute faster than the rest. For me, San Remo is a lost day. It’s pointless.”

De Lie rode Milan San Remo once before, in 2023, finishing 95th, just under six minutes down behind winner Mathieu van der Poel. Since then, however, the race has tilted sharply in favour of the sport’s two most explosive forces, Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel. Their repeated accelerations on the Cipressa and Poggio have redrawn the parameters of what is possible in the season’s longest Monument.

A top ten, De Lie said, would be “nice” but not especially useful. He would rather chase a win elsewhere than spend a full day fighting for survival in a race he expects to be blown apart long before the Via Roma.

“Right now I get more pleasure from a win, like two days earlier in GP Denain,” he said.

Could he return to San Remo later in his career? He did not rule it out, but he did not romanticise it either.

“Maybe one day,” he said. “Everything in its time. And if it never happens again, I won’t die from it. There are worse things in life.”

After a turbulent 2025, De Lie will centre his 2026 spring on the Cobbled Classics. Beyond April, his calendar points toward the Tour de Wallonie, now held in June, followed by what would be his third Tour de France. Later in the season, he is also targeting selection for the World Championships in Montreal.

“I’ve only done one Worlds in my career, and it will be very tough, but I always ride well in Canada,” said De Lie to Sporza, winner of the Grand Prix de Montréal in 2023.