Not even Tadej Pogachar has escaped the cold and flu epidemic that has gripped the professional peloton for the past two weeks, but the Slovenian's symptoms will not prevent him from lining up for Saturday's Milano-San Remo winner.

When Pogachar held a press conference in Lainate on Friday afternoon, his hoarse voice immediately suggested that he, too, was ill, though not to the extent that he could join the long retiree list for Milan-San Remo.

"You can see that his nose is not 100% either. When I came back from Tirreno-Adriatico, I could hardly ride my bike for three days. But yesterday and today, when I started riding my bike, I started feeling good.

"Every day I ride in the cold air, full throttle in Calpeña, and then I answer interviews in a tent in 5 degrees Celsius. But it's just a stuffy nose, so I don't think it will affect the condition of my legs. I've had the flu before, but it's not much different."

Pogachar's victory in Tirreno-Adriatico, colored by a brilliant solo run in Monte Carpegna, maintained his perfect start to the 2022 season following wins in the UAE Tour and Strade Bianche. Of the 166 players departing Vigorelli on Saturday morning, the nose-stuffed Pogachar is undoubtedly the strongest.

The beauty of Milan-San Remo, however, lies in its subtlety. Power alone is no guarantee of success on Via Roma, as the gradients of the Cipressa and Poggio are relatively gentle. The first monument of the season may be the most obvious route, but the permutations inherent in its finale are endless.

Pogachar has competed in Milan-San Remo once before, finishing 12th in the 2020 event, which was postponed due to the pandemic. In the year and a half or so since then, he has won two Tour de France races and has two monuments to his name. Returning to the Riviera, he has a very different goal in mind.

"The first time I raced the Riviera, after the blockade of Covid and all that, it was August and pretty hot, and it was a different course from the start to the sea," Pogachar said.

"But it was the same final, same style of racing, I think we learned a lot from the first one and tomorrow we will see if we learned anything."

In 2021, Pogachar won two monuments clearly suited to Grand Tour riders: Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia. On Saturday, he will be aiming to become the first Milano-San Remo winner since Eddy Merckx in 1975.

"I think it's a unique class, it's 300 km long and if you don't make the race exciting, it can be pretty boring," Pogachar said

"I think it's a very good class, it's a very good class.

"The final is always more or less the same. Poggio is always six minutes at his best. You need to be as fresh as possible.

Pogachar has been dominant on the Italian roads in recent weeks, and many in the Gruppo are expecting an onslaught from his UAE Team Emirates team from the moment the race reaches the Riviera cape. The forecast for a tailwind in the finale also seems to favor the attackers, raising speculation that the winning move will come from far outside Chipressa for the first time since 1996.

"It may not be 'suicide,'" Pogachar replied when asked about an attack on Chipressa. 'For the last couple of years it's been difficult to attack at Chipressa. For the last few years it has been an impossible mission. In modern cycling, we have already seen many attacks from long distances. Maybe it will be the same in San Remo.

"It will be really fast up to the climbs, and the climbs will be faster.

Matteo Trentin suffered a delayed concussion in Paris-Nice and will miss Milan-San Remo, but UAE Team Emirates resisted the temptation to make up for his lack of speed by adding sprinter Fernando Gaviria to the lineup. Instead, the selection of players centered around Pogachar.

Diego Ulissi said, "It is difficult to carry the race.

Pogachar, meanwhile, acknowledged that Wout Van Art (Jumbo-Visma) "has exceptional form right now," although he warned that the returning Mathieu Van Der Pol (Alpecin Phoenix) was not running simply to make up numbers, was reluctant to name any one person as his main rival.

"Tomorrow we will finally know, but I don't think he will come here just for training.

Of course, it is not easy to escape from a player like Van Aert, and Pogachar knows that finishing speed is an important weapon for the Milan-San Remo winner. It is not something he lacks. Last year's Liege-Bastogne-Liege brought a sprint win, and Van Aat won the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics

. 'It may be different after 300 km, but you have to get there first. In my normal races, I get an adrenaline rush when I see the finish line."