Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious), after winning Milan-San Remo, was very happy that his secret strategy of using a MTB-style dropper seatpost while descending Poggio worked and allowed him to gain precious seconds on the technical descent and win in Monumento, Italy! He said he was delighted.

Mohoric is one of the best descenders in the peloton and popularized the aero position on Super Tac to the point that the UCI eventually banned it. Now he has changed the descent and the sport again, perhaps forever.

"I knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I wanted to make the idea work for the team and my technical partners," Mohoretz said after the race, also revealing that he teased his rivals in the Milan-San Remo race.

"I went to a good race rival I knew and showed off my dropper. He asked me what I was doing with the dropper and I laughed, but I warned him that if he followed me downhill, he was on his own."

"I destroyed cycling once with Super Tac and now I've destroyed cycling again. Now I think people will start using dropper posts. It's one more thing to think about on the bike; it'll be like Formula One. It used to be just a gas pedal and brake pedal, now there are hundreds of buttons."

Mohoric explained how he developed the dropper post with the Bahrain Victorias team and bike sponsor Merida.

More commonly used in the mountain bike scene, a dropper post is a term used to describe a seat post that can be quickly raised or lowered, usually via a cable-operated remote control located on the handlebars.

The length of this drop varies and is called the stroke length; some can exceed 200 mm, but in the case of Mohorich it appears to have been around 50-70 mm.

The benefits of dropper posts may seem minimal, but as any mountain biker will tell you, lowering the saddle out of the way greatly improves bike handling. There is definitely a side benefit of a lower center of gravity.

Despite the fact that Bahrain Victorious' sponsor, FSA, manufactures its own dropper post, the post used by Mohoric was an unsponsored choice, the Fox Transfer SL Performance Elite. This is advertised by Fox as the lightest mainstream dropper on the market, is marketed for lightweight cross-country and gravel bikes, and is available with a drop-bar remote control, which apparently Mohoric's mechanics did not use.

The dropper post was chosen thanks to the fortunate decision of bike sponsor Merida to use a traditional round seatpost on their race bike, the Scultura. While this decision goes against the recent trend of competitors seeking more aero and confortable D-shaped seatposts, it was a great advantage for Mohoric this time around.

"I chose the MTB model because, according to UCI rules, I had to use a commercially available dropper," Mohoric happily explained.

"I tested a 12cm dropper, but that didn't pedal efficiently, so I chose a 6cm one. On the descent of the Poggio, I had to lower and raise my grip on the bars a lot."

"The idea of using a dropper post has long been dismissed, but now the technology has advanced and it's no heavier than a regular seatpost. Maybe next year all bikes will have dropper posts. It's safer in traffic, it's better for training, it's better for braking. It will also help me brake better. I think it will be a big advantage in the races."

Mohorec grew up with childhood friends in Slovenia, where he learned to descend on mountain bikes, testing his limits on trails and technical descents.

He almost crashed twice on the Poggio descent, but had the bike skills to stay upright.

He had a violent crash with Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Alfa Vinyl) at Strade Bianche and hurt his knee, but he knew that if he could maintain and recover his fitness on the dropper post, he would have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. With a combination of his fitness, bike skills, and the bike margin gain from dropper posts, he won Milan - San Remo.

"I wasn't the most talented downhill rider among my peers, but I pushed my limits and learned quickly from my mistakes.

"I was more tenacious on the road and more talented in climbing, which allowed me to become a pro. But I never forgot the lessons I learned as a kid about going down and finding my limits."

"Sure, I know where my limits are. I can feel the point where I slip, and if I do, I can correct it. In Poggio I felt the bike a few times and lost some seconds because of it, but fortunately I didn't crash. I was trying to win Milan-San Remo, but I felt stupid."