Tadej Pogačar is auctioning the jersey he wore to win Milan-San Remo earlier this month, and it is already set to make big bucks. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG top, which features Pogačar's world champion's rainbow bands, as well as the signatures of the Slovenian and his team-mates, already has a leading bid of €60,100 ($68,800 or £52,000).
Pogačar won the race in a photo finish sprint with Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling), but not before he had crashed on the run-in to the climb of the Cipressa. He was able to make his way back through the bunch and make the winning move on the climb, but the jersey bears the marks of that fall, adding to its story as a piece of cycling history.
The auction, which is running on the Galabid site, featured a starting bid of €1,000 and will run until the beginning of Paris-Roubaix on 12 April. The winning bid will be doubled by Pogačar himself, and the proceeds will go to the Tadej Pogačar Foundation, which has a wide overall remit but in this case will use the money to help children and young people in need, according to the auction write-up.
It says: "At Milano–Sanremo 2026, Tadej Pogačar crashed 32 km before the finish, continued with a damaged bike and a torn jersey, and still won.
"This is that jersey. It's signed by Tadej and his teammates.
"We are auctioning the original race-worn piece, exactly as it was that day. The winning amount will be doubled by Tadej and donated to his Foundation, supporting children and young people in need."
This is not the first time that collectors have been able to bid on a piece of Pogačar's career history. Only last December his Colnago Y1Rs went on auction at Sothebys and succeeded in fetching a mammoth $190,500 (£142,713). Pogačar had ridden to the 'Stripped Black' raw carbon bike, which featured rainbow accents, from the Mont Ventoux stage of the Tour de France onwards, and throughout the latter part of the season. They were some of the most successful months of his career, with victories in the Kigali World Championships, the European Championships and Il Lombardia adding to his fourth Tour de France victory.
Whether his Milan-San Remo jersey will raise as much money as that Colnago did is doubtful, but judging by the flying start to the auction, someone is clearly very keen to win it, and money does not look to be much object.
