'We need to get our positioning right into Cipressa' - Alpecin name Van der Poel's team for Sanremo

Alpecin-Premier Tech line up seeking a fourth consecutive Milan-Sanremo victory on Saturday, but 2024 winner Jasper Philipsen is adamant that defending champion Mathieu van der Poel is the team’s primary option.

“We have Mathieu van der Poel as the absolute leader, he’s probably the only one able to follow and counter Pogacar,” Philipsen told Sporza after his win at Nokere Koerse on Wednesday. 

“I’m going to race in a slightly more defensive role in case it comes down to a sprint with a slightly larger group. But every year it gets harder and harder to go to the finish line with a good group.”

On Thursday, Alpecin-Premier Tech confirmed that Van der Poel and Philipsen will be joined by Silvan Dillier, Michael Gogl, Edward Planckaert, Tim Marsman and Emiel Verstrynge in the team for Milan-Sanremo.

Dillier is the only rider other than Van der Poel and Philipsen to have been part of each instalment of the team’s three-year winning run on the Riviera. Indeed, the Swiss is the only survivor from last year’s line-up alongside the two leaders.

There is a sense, however, that this year’s Milan-Sanremo will again come down to a hand-to-hand contest between Van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar, who twelve months ago ignited the race with an astonishing attack on the Cipressa.

Van der Poel was the only man able to resist all the way to the top of the climb and all the way up the Poggio, while Filippo Ganna performed a minor miracle to keep the pair within his sights and then bridge back up to them in the streets of Sanremo.

The expectation is that Pogacar will launch a similar offensive this time out, backed by a redoubtable UAE Team Emirates-XRG line-up that includes Isaac del Toro and Brandon McNulty. 

The onus will again be on Van der Poel to follow, and the Dutchman impressed with two stage wins at Tirreno-Adriatico, as well as a remarkable cameo on the final stage to San Benedetto del Tronto, where he split the field with his tempo on the day’s longest climb.

“The team’s focus is clear,” Philipsen said of his place in the firmament. “We need to get our positioning right heading into Cipressa, and then the legs will do the talking there. I’m going to stay more out of the way. We have very strong guys in the team who have to ensure that Mathieu gets a good turn.”

Philip and Christoph Roodhooft's team is chasing a piece of history on Saturday, as no team has won Milan-Sanremo four times in succession since French squad Alcyon achieved the feat from 1910 to 1913 with Eugène Christophe, Gustave Garrigou, Henri Pélissier and Odile Defraye