Lidl-Trek will line up at Milan-San Remo without Jonathan Milan after the Italian sprinter was forced out of Saturday’s Monument by illness, dealing another blow to the team’s Classics plans.
Milan raced Tirreno-Adriatico last week and finished the race in style with victory on stage 7, but his momentum has been halted by sickness after returning home.
“Unfortunately, Jonathan Milan became unwell upon return home from Tirreno-Adriatico and was forced to take time off the bike to help with his recovery; consequently, the decision has been made for him to skip Milano Sanremo this Saturday,” Lidl-Trek said in a brief statement.
Another Lidl-Trek setback after Pedersen’s crash
Milan becomes the second major Lidl-Trek card removed from the Milan-San Remo deck, with Mads Pedersen still working his way back from his heavy early-season crash. Pedersen’s recovery has already made the Via Roma finish an unrealistic target, and Milan’s withdrawal now leaves the team without its most obvious route to a headline result in a race that still, on the right day, can reward a fast finisher.
What Milan’s absence means for the race shape
Milan-San Remo has always lived in that tension between tradition and modern reality.
Yes, there have been editions settled by a sprint from a reduced peloton, with the likes of Mark Cavendish and Jasper Philipsen among the recent era’s reference points for that scenario. But the last few years have trended harder and more selective, with the Poggio ridden increasingly like a launchpad rather than an obstacle to be endured.
Milan’s presence would have strengthened the argument for a sprint finish, not because he guarantees it, but because riders and teams race differently when there is a dominant sprinter to bring to the line. Without him, the calculations shift slightly further towards aggression on the Cipressa and Poggio.
The sprinters still in the mix
Even with Milan missing, the start list still carries plenty of speed. Jasper Philipsen returns as a former winner and obvious reference point, while Matthew Brennan arrives as one of the most talked-about fast men in the Visma | Lease a Bike pipeline.
There is also a solid supporting cast in Tobias Lund Andresen for Decathlon CMA CGM, Paul Magnier for Soudal Quick-Step, Luke Lamperti for EF Education-EasyPost, and Danny van Poppel for Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe, among others, depending on how the race is raced and which teams are willing to commit to control.
Lidl-Trek’s options now
Lidl-Trek have not yet confirmed their final line-up, but the absence of both Milan and Pedersen leaves them searching for a different type of opportunity. Mathias Vacek looks the most plausible route to a competitive result, particularly if the Poggio selection becomes about positioning, punch and timing rather than a pure uphill sprint.
The reality, though, is that without Milan’s speed or Pedersen’s proven durability in hard one-day races, Lidl-Trek’s ceiling shifts from winning scenarios to opportunistic ones, aiming to land in the front group and turn chaos into a top result.
A race already leaning towards the attackers
The wider narrative remains the same: most of the pre-race attention is fixed on Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar, two riders who can turn Milan-San Remo into a different sport if they decide the Poggio needs to be raced flat-out.
Milan’s illness does not decide how Saturday unfolds, but it does remove one of the clearest incentives for teams to gamble on a sprint.
