Milan-San Remo 2025 Odds and Predictions

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On Saturday, March 22, the 116^th edition of the Milan-San Remo will get underway in Northwest Italy. The 2025 installment of this Classic is packed with star power including pre-race favorite Tadej Pogacar.

The Milan-San Remo is one of the oldest races in professional cycling. Additionally, it’s traditionally the first of the five Monument races to mark the calendar. Eddy Merckx holds the all-time record with seven wins at Milan-San Remo.

Last year’s winner Jasper Philipsen is expected to take the starting line this Saturday as well. In fact, the 2023 Milan-San Remo winner Mathieu van der Poel is also competing this weekend.

Let’s take a look at the latest cycling odds, courtesy of the top sports betting sites, and make our Milan-San Remo predictions.

Milan-San Remo Start List

The following stars of cycling are set to take the starting line for the 2025 Milan-San Remo:

• Tadej Pogacar
• Mathieu van der Poel
• Jasper Philipsen
• Mads Pedersen
• Filippo Ganna
• Tom Pidcock
• Matej Mohoric
• Biniam Girmay
• Michael Matthews
• Julian Aliphilippe

How To Watch Milan-San Remo?

The 2025 Milan-San Remo can be seen on the usual list of platforms including Eurosport, FlowBikes, TNT Sports and MAX for North American users. Start time is at 4:25am ET and 10:25am local time.  

Milan-San Remo 2024 Results

The 2024 Milan-San Remo race was a thrilling event that saw a bunch sprint at the line after the peloton caught the breakaway in the latter portions of the stage.

Pogacar when on the attack first, but was brought back in. A descent into San Remo saw more attacks from Mohoric, Sobrero and Pidcock in the final 2km.

However, once it came down to a bunch sprint, it was the peloton’s fastest man Jasper Philipsen that left the rest of the competitors in his wake.

Michael Matthews came in second place and Pogacar ended up third. Mads Pedersen was the best of the non-podium finishers as he came in 4^th place. Van der Poel was 10^th.

Milan-San Remo Odds

Check out the latest Milan-San Remo odds:

Unlike the Strade-Bianche, where Tadej Pogacar was a massive favorite, other riders in the Milan-San Remo are close in odds like Mathieu van der Poel, Jasper Philipsen and Mads Pedersen.

Additionally, previous podium finishers might be appealing to some as their odds are higher than some of the best handicappers expected.

Milan-San Remo Favorites

Let’s take a look at the pre-race favorites for the 116^th Milan-San Remo event:

Tadej Pogacar (+250)       

Pogacar comes into Milan-San Remo highly motivated to pick up his first ever victory in this race. In four previous appearances, Pogacar has a 12^th and three consecutive Top 5 results. His best finish came last year when he was third overall. In 2023, he was 4^th.

When we last saw the sport’s top cyclist, Pogacar was a wounded winner after overcoming a hard crash to win Strade-Bianche two weeks ago. Not only did he win the race, but he rode away from the competition after picking himself up off the roads of Italy.

The Slovenian’s only other appearance this year came in the UAE Tour, where he easily won the GC battle after winning two of the seven stages.

It’s rumored that Pogacar is going to try and compete in many of the upcoming Classics and one-day races. Paris-Roubaix is the one that fans and pundits are waiting to hear about.   

Nevertheless, I always come back to the same premise when it involves Pogacar. And, that is the fact that the 26-year-old is the man to beat whenever there’s a number on his back. 

Mathieu van der Poel (+350)

One man that has the potential to upstage Pogacar at Milan-San Remo is Mathieu van der Poel (MVDP). The 30-year-old just completed Tirreno-Adriatico and looked really good on stages 4 and 5 where he finished in the Top 3 on both.

Although he didn’t win a stage, van der Poel was pleased with his performance and is focused on the upcoming Milan-San Remo race:

“I feel good, which is a victory considering the weather over the past few days. I needed this to prepare for the classics. I think I found the extra percent I was looking for here. Now, it’s mainly a matter of resting and giving myself a challenge now and then in training. I feel ready for what’s to come.”

For van der Poel, this will be his 6^th appearance in the Classic race. He was 10^th last year, after winning in 2023. He was also 3^rd in 2022, and 5^th in 2021. That’s three Top 5 finishes in five of his starts at Milan-San Remo.

With a solid week of racing under his belt, and seemingly at full health, MVDP is definitely a contender to win this race on Saturday.

Jasper Philipsen (+500)   

Van der Poel’s teammate Jasper Philipsen is the defending race winner at Milan-San Remo and poised to capture a second straight victory if it comes down to a bunch sprint again.

Philipsen started off the season with a subpar outing at the UAE Tour where he failed to win any of the bunch sprints. He followed that up with a 3^rd at Omloop Nieuwsblad.

And, just as the critics began doubting Philipsen, the Beligan went out and emphatically won Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne roughly three weeks ago. Since then, he’s been in training with his team and MVDP as well.

Speaking on training with van der Poel, Philipsen credits his teammate with pushing him hard:

“He really pushed me this winter. He stayed nearby and we spent a lot of hours together training. I’ve never trained as hard as I did this winter because he was always pushing me, [saying] ‘Be there and don’t be two minutes late.’ I need people to motivate me and it was nice to prepare with him. We did some really good training.”

It will be interesting to see how Alpecin-Deceuninck handles the upcoming Monument. They have two legit contenders to win this race. However, will either man help the other by sacrificing their own chances of winning?

Last year, it seemed that the team did that for Philipsen. Will they do it again? Or will MVDP get the nod as the leader on the road?

Mads Pedersen (+600)

Denmark’s Mads Pedersen was one of the most impressive riders in Paris-Nice this last week. In addition to winning the green jersey, points competition, Pedersen also won Stage 6 along with two other Top 4 finishes over this eight-day race.

Prior to Paris-Nice, Pedersen also won Tour de la Provence in mid-February. He swept both the green and yellow jerseys. The 29-year-old also finished 2^nd in the mountains’ competition.

As for the Milan-San Remo, Pedersen made the following comments about this weekend’s race:

“Going into Milan-San Remo and the other Classics, it’s looking very good, now we just have to stay healthy and keep it going.”

I’m not sure if Lidl-Trek team manager Steven de Jongh is being coy or unwilling to put all of his team behind Pedersen, but de Jongh said that there will be a number of factors to determine how it all works out at Milan-San Remo.

To me, that’s a silly statement. The way Pedersen rode in Paris-Nice is a clear sign that he’s more than capable of winning Milan-San Remo on Saturday.

In his three previous appearances, Pedersen was 4^th last year and 6^th in both 2022 and 2023. Despite the fact that his teammate and 2021 Milan winner, Jasper Stuyven, is taking the starting line on Saturday, I believe that Pedersen is definitely a podium contender and could even threaten both MVDP and Pogacar for the win.

Filippo Ganna (+800)       

Just as impressive as Pedersen was in Paris-Nice, INEOS rider Filippo Ganna was as equally impressive in the Tirreno-Adriatico.

In fact, Ganna was in the race lead up until the final climb on Stage 6. He ended up finishing 2^nd overall, which was a huge result for the Italian rider.  It certainly was a big improvement over his 5^th place finish at Algarve.

The powerful sprinter and time-trialist made the following comments about his Tirreno performance:

“It was a fantastic Tirreno for me, everything went well. We arrived in the best condition; we worked well this winter. We did everything to the best to arrive this spring with the best legs.”

With the way that Ganna climbed in the Tirreno-Adriatico, he is definitely a threat to win the Milan-San Remo this Saturday. The Italian showed that’s he has the legs to limit his losses against the best climbers in the world.

Furthermore, his sprinting is superior to all of those climbers. And, if he can stay with the leaders until the final kilometers at Milan-San Remo, we could see INEOS pick up a much needed win this weekend.

Best Milan-San Remo Betting Value

The following cyclists offer the best betting value based on their current odds, 2025 season to date, and the previous Milan-San Remo results:

Tom Pidcock (+1800)

I have to admit, I’ve been really impressed with how well Tom Pidcock has performed this season after leaving INEOS for the smaller Q36.5 team. He’s battled the top GC contenders, the top climbers and the top sprinters over the first few months of 2025. And, it’s really been fun to watch.

At the Tirreno-Adriatico, Pidcock finished 6^th overall but was also 2^nd in the points classification and 3^rd in the mountain classification. That was a strong result after falling short in Strade-Bianche where Pidcock finished 2^nd to Pogacar.

However, the Brit does have three stage wins on the season so far, and also won the AlUla Tour. So, he’s really excelled with this wild card team and his confidence is growing with each competition.

As for Milan-San Remo, Pidcock’s best result came last year when he finished 11^th. Prior to that, he was 15^th in 2021, and scored a DNF in 2022.

I believe the 25-year-old is going to pick up his best Milan result of his career this weekend.

Matej Mohoric (+2200)

I’m a bit surprised by how large Matej Mohoric’s odds are for this race. He won the Milan-San Remo in 2022, was 8^th in 2023, and 6^th in 2024. He also has a 5^th in 2019. This weekend’s appearance will mark the 9^th of his career.

Mohoric’s best result in 2025 so far, was a 2^nd overall at the Tour de la Provence. Although his next three races were throwaways, Mohoric is definitely someone to keep an eye on this weekend. If the team supports him fully, then Mohoric could be a podium contender at the very least.

Michael Matthews (+2800)

Michael Matthews lone race in 2025, was last week’s Paris-Nice event where he finished 55^th overall. However, Matthews showed his speed with a 2^nd in the team time trial on Stage 3.

For Matthews, this will be his 12^th appearance at Milan-San Remo. His best result came last year when he finished 2^nd. He also has two podium finishes in 2020 and 2015. In fact, Matthews has four consecutive Top 6 results in this race.

Biniam Girmay (+5000)

The last time we saw Biniam Girmay in a race, he didn’t finish the Algarve last month. So, it will be interesting to see how his form is in the Milan-San Remo. Despite not competing in a race for almost a month, the team’s COO is very confident in Girmay for this weekend’s race:

“Without a doubt, the Monument he dreams of the most this year. During his absence from the peloton, he was able to do his thing at home. You can consider it as an extra altitude training camp. He trained well, did everything the trainers asked and his values are also good. On Monday, he returned to Europe and flew straight to Milan. That way, he can still explore the course a bit in the coming days.”

In his three previous appearances at Milan-San Remo, Girmay has finished 27^th last year, 28^th in 2023, and 12^th in 2022. He has yet to crack the Top 10, but it sounds like his form is on point and that the 24-year-old could put on his best performance to date.

The Top Milan-San Remo Longshot

It’s clear that Julian Alaphilippe’s (+12500) best days are behind him. However, he still has moments where the French cyclist looks like his old self.

In fact, in Paris-Nice last week, Alaphilippe looked strong on various stages and helped his teammate Michael Storer pick up a win on Stage 7.

It remains to be seen if the 32-year-old is going to be the team captain for Saturday’s race or not. This will be his 8^th appearance in this race. Alaphilippe won the Milan-San Remo in 2019, and has two additional podium finishes. However, he hasn’t finished higher than 9^th in the last three years.

Milan-San Remo Predictions

I’ve said it once, twice, a million times; if Pogacar is racing then I’m betting on the Slovenian to win the event. With that said, this weekend’s race won’t be easy for Pogacar.

In order to beat the likes of van der Poel, Pedersen, Philipsen and Ganna, Pogacar will need to ensure that this race doesn’t come down to a bunch sprint in the end.

UAE Team Emirates will need to make the pace hard for most of the day. And, they will need to use every climb as a weapon to dislodge the sprinters.

Where most races can come down to Pogacar’s speed and climbing abilities, Milan-San Remo is not one of them. It’s going to take tactics and suffering from Tadej to get the victory. With that said, I’m taking Pogacar to win this race in thrilling fashion. It’s going to be an exciting event this weekend.

Bet: Tadej Pogacar (+250)

Milan-San Remo Winners

The following is a list of recent Milan-San Remo winners: