Milano-San Remo, as it happened: Van der Poel denies in-form Pogacar to take special win

I leave you with this wonderful snap of today's final podium... Thanks for joining me for the ride today and see you all soon for the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix where the same big names could well be battling it out for the wins over the cobbles.

A fantastic team performance from Alpecin-Deceuninck to place two riders in the top five and take the win through the indefatigable Van der Poel.

"I cannot imagine a better scenario than this one. I already told the team that there was a headwind on Cipressa so it was not as hard as previous years. But I already felt that my legs were still fresh. I knew I wanted to place an attack at the end of the Poggio and I managed to find a small gap between Pogacar and the wall. This is one of the races I really wanted to win. The way I won it today, I think it’s beyond expectation – I’m really happy."

Asked whether it was more special for following in the footsteps of his grandfather, he said: "For sure. It’s special not only because he won it, but because it’s a Monument and it’s one that every ride wants to win. I was really focussed on this race since I started training again after the cyclocross worlds. I needed some race days at Tirreno to get to my best level and today, this was my best level I think."

The Italian powerhouse gives the home fans something to cheer with a solid second place, Filippo Ganna crossing the line with a slight shake of the head. Wout van Aert completes the top three ahead of Tadej Pogacar. Meanwhile, Soren Kragh Andersen completed the top five to make it a quite superb day for Alpecin-Deceuninck.

Like his grandfather Raymond Poulidor in 1961, Mathieu van der Poel has won Milano-San Remo to become the fourth Dutchman to win La Primavera.

No one will catch Mathieu van der Poel who will win his second Monument now. That was a textbook win.

It looks like Mathieu van der Poel is going to win this at a canter - so says the armchair critic - because the three behind just can't seem to make any inroads now that it's flattened out ahead of the home straight. Six seconds for the Dutchman.

The Belgian rides ahead of Pogacar and Ganna in pursuit of Van der Poel. This is going to be a really thrilling finale. The average speed today has been 45.747kmph. It's been 38 years since the last Dutch winner of Milano-San Remo - Hennie Kuiper in 1985.

The Dutchman opens up a small gap over the three chasers and this could be the key move... He has a few seconds on Van Aert, Ganna and Pogacar.

Pogacar, Ganna, Van der Poel and Van Aert are leading this race, with Mohoric leading the chase behind...

Wellens forces the split as seven riders go clear... Pogacar takes it up and only Ganna can close in. Van Aert and Van der Poel then manage to bridge over so we have four out ahead...

Tim Wellens brings Tadej Pogacar onto the front and the UAE duo are going big guns. But it hasn't broken things up and this is still a very big, albeit strung out, main pack.

With four riders on the front, it's all Bahrain Victorious. No one has taken back-to-back wins since Erik Zabel in 2001. Can Matej Mohoric join the German? This climb is 3.6km at 3.7% so it's not super steep - but after so many kilometres in the legs, it always packs a punch.

EF and Bahrain lead the pack towards the Poggio and it's all going to explode soon. Van Aert has finally come forward now. It's show time with 10km to go.

It's the French national champion pulling for Soudal ahead of the final climb, with Girmay and defending champion Mohoric right in the mix. Ineos have numbers but Wout van Aert is badly placed and nowhere near the front here...

It looked promising but the Bora rider clearly realised he'd bitten off more than he could chew. Politt is now back with the main pack as the field reforms a little ahead of the final test. Peter Sagan is still here, ditto Biniam Girmay and John Degenkolb and Arnaud Demare. Get ready for the most thrilling 15 minutes of the spring classics season...

With team-mate Sam Bennett out following that crash, German champion Nils Politt is trying to salvage something for Bora-Hansgrohe. Just after that trio of Van der Poel, Trentin and Kragh Andersen were brought to heel, Politt zipped clear. He's now opened up a small gap on the flat road between these two key climbs.