After win in Milan-San Remo, Tadej Pogacar matches Roger De Vlaeminck's record

Persistence pays off: Tadej Pogacar can finally call himself the winner of Milan-San Remo. The Slovenian crossed the line first on Saturday after a nail-biting finale, making history in several ways.

Pogacar is, for example, only the fifth rider in history to win Milan-San Remo as the reigning world champion. Giuseppe Saronni (1983), the inevitable Eddy Merckx (1975 and 1972), Felice Gimondi (1974), and Alfredo Binda (1931) preceded him.

With his victory in La Primavera, Pogacar’s monument count now stands at eleven. This puts him level with Roger De Vlaeminck, who also claimed eleven monuments in the 1970s. Pogacar now faces just one rider ahead of him: Eddy Merckx. The gap between these two cycling legends is significant, as the Belgian won a remarkable nineteen monument classics.

Now that Milan-San Remo is on his palmarès, Pogacar can still carve out a piece of cycling history this spring by checking off all five monuments. The UAE Emirates XRG rider only has Paris-Roubaix left to win. If he succeeds, he will join the illustrious ranks of Eddy Merckx, Roger De Vlaeminck, and Rik Van Looy.

What Pogacar could also aim for this spring is the victory in all three spring monuments in a single season, with Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix. This has never been done before, although Eddy Merckx (in 1969 and 1975) and Roger De Vlaeminck (1977) came very close in the past.