SAN REMO, Italy -- Bloodied, bruised and battered, Tadej Pogacar finally won the Milan-San Remo race.
Pogacar recovered from a crash about 18 miles from the finish to edge out Tom Pidcock at the line and win the race known as La Classicissima for the first time Saturday.
Milan-San Remo is the longest one-day classic in Europe at almost 186 miles and the first of the season.
It was one of the few titles that had eluded Pogacar, one of cycling's biggest stars, and he admitted several times to being desperate to change that.
Pogacar's chances appeared to diminish when he was caught up in the crash that shredded the left side of his shorts and left him with scrapes and cuts on his leg.
Last year's winner Mathieu van der Poel also went down, but the duo managed to rejoin the back of the peloton at the start of the penultimate Cipressa climb.
Pogacar worked his way to the front, stuck with an initial attack and attacked himself toward the top, with only Pidcock and van der Poel able to follow.
The trio had a gap of 25 seconds at the top, although that was down to 11 seconds as they began the Poggio climb shortly before the finish.
Pogacar attacked halfway up and managed to drop van der Poel. He tried several times to shake Pidcock but couldn't distance him, and they were locked together as they crested the summit.
Little could separate the duo on the descent. Pogacar opened up the sprint 200 meters from the line and beat Pidcock by half a wheel.
Wout Van Aert won a bunch sprint for third.