Another year, another Tadej Pogačar exhibition at Strade Bianche. The World Champion delivered on his favourite status on the Tuscan gravel on Saturday and, in almost choreographed fashion, soloed from range to a record-breaking fourth title.
After his 50km solo in 2022 and his 19km effort last year, this was a throwback to the 2024 edition, when Pogačar rode alone from all of 81km out. This was a shade shorter, at 79km, but the move was made on that same critical gravel sector of the Monte Sante Marie, and the result was the same – he was never seen again.
Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) could not quite provide the competition for Pogačar that the race has arguably lacked in recent years, but the 19-year-old nevertheless confirmed his status as the next great rival to the Slovenian’s dominance of world cycling with a stunning second place on debut.
Seixas was agonisingly close to being able to follow Pogačar on Sante Marie, only to be dropped by a vicious secondary acceleration, but he recovered to stand out in the chase group and then drop fellow young phenom Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) on the steep final kicker of the Via Santa Caterina in the final kilometre. He rode into the Piazza del Campo a minute after Pogačar had crossed the line and dismounted his bike to celebrate.
Del Toro couldn’t make it a one-two for UAE but he did make it two on the podium with his third place, while Jan Christen, who’d split the bunch initially on Sante Marie, made it three in the top six. The presence of those two in the chase effectively locked the race up for Pogačar.
Christen arrived just behind Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ United) and Gianni Vermeersch (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), who were part of the main chase group along with Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), the latter two strong throughout but fading on the Santa Caterina. Pidcock was especially dejected, having slipped his chain twice at key moments on the Sante Marie.
Former winner Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) rounded out the top 10 just behind Andreas Kron (Uno-X).
But the day belonged to Pogačar, who marked his season debut with a win and now, with four Strade Bianche titles, surpasses the record of three he shared with Fabian Cancellara until today.
"I always say this but chapeau to my teammates today, everybody did an incredibly job. It was an honour to ride with such a team today and deliver the win," said Pogačar, who also spoke about the moment he dropped Seixas.
“I saw he was chasing really hard on the steepest part of the climb on Sante Marie, and I said to myself ‘I’ll go all-out to the top then I’ll see. Either he can come to my wheel or there’ll be a gap. In the end it was enough, and I saw Isaac and Jan were there behind so this was enough to go alone.”
The early break and the explosion on Monte Sante Marie
It was a fast start to proceedings on a mild and dry day in Tuscany, and it took some 40km and three gravel sectors for a breakaway to form.
In the end, nine riders managed to make the boat: Tibor Del Grosso (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Patrick Konrad (Lidl-Trek), Jack Haig (Ineos Grenadiers), Tim Rex (Visma-Lease a Bike), Martin Marcellusi (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber), Davide Toneatti (XDS Astana), Anders Foldager (Jayco-AlUla), Adrien Boichis (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe), Samuele Zoccarato (MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort).
The gap reached two minutes but Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG soon came to the front and the escapees were never allowed more rope than that.
The gap came down to 45 seconds as sectors 4 and 5 – Lucignnano d’Asso and Pieve a Salti – came in quick succession, forming what was effectively one long 20km sector with a stiff climb on the latter. However, the peloton eased up on the subsequent 20km stretch, allowing the break to go back out to 90 seconds.
Sector 6 at San Martino in Grania, however, saw the race come back to the boil. The 9.4km sector was mostly uphill and saw the peloton fragment, split, and reduce, with the breakaway coming back into view. This time, the tarmac offered little respite, as UAE kept a high pace in what was essentially a leadout to the Monte Sante Marie, which would live up to its billing as the crucial point of the race.
Florian Vermeersch led the way onto the 11.5km rolling sector before handing over to Jan Christen, who split the bunch just 2km into the sector. Nine riders were in the initial selection: Christen, Pogačar, Del Toro, Seixas, Pidcock, Jorgenson, Gregoire, Lapeira, and Labrosse.
A couple of kilometres later, Pogačar was off, 7.5km from the end of the sector and 79.5km from the finish.
Pidcock was sprinting into the wheel just as the World Champion was going clear but appeared to slip his chain. Seixas came through to give chase and it looked like the script from previous years may be ripped up as the 19-year-old clawed his way back up towards Pogačar on the main climbing part of the sector.
However, just as he was making contact Pogačar kicked again, and his rear wheel would be clear for the remainder of the day.
On exit of Monte Sante Marie, Pogačar already had a lead of 30 seconds over Seixas, who’d been joined by Del Toro. The latter, being a teammate of the leader, was not contributing and so Seixas soon made the call to wait for the next chase trio of Pidcock, Jorgenson, and Gregoire. As he did so, the gap went out to nearly a minute.
Colle Pinzuto to the finish
The chase group expanded further on the short sector 8 and the subsequent sector 9, which was the first of two ascents of Colle Pinzuto, the sector named after Pogačar earlier this week due to his trio of wins in the race. Kron and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) were the first to get across, followed by Christen, Vemeersch, Van Aert, Lapeira, Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek, Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost), Clement Braz Afonso (Groupama-FDJ).
That made it 15 in the chase on the first ascent of the steep Le Tolfe sector with 40km to go, where the hordes of fans left a stretch of gravel so narrow Healy made contact with one of them, nearly causing he and Del Toro to crash. Pidcock launched a big attack as Pogačar took a lead of 1:50 over the top, but separation in the chase would only come on the tarmac a few kilometres later, where Pidcock went away with Seixas, Jorgenson, Christen, and Del Toro.
That quintet reduced the gap to 1:20 and it looked there might just be a thimble of suspense in the race, but Pogačar pulled back out to 1:35 over sector 12 and maintained that by the end of the second passage of his own Colle Pinzuto sector with 25km to go.
Seixas made a huge attack on Pinzuto to make a bid for the podium, with Del Toro the only rider able to follow – and follow he did, refusing to collaborate. It was a similar story on the second ascent of Le Tolfe, the final gravel sector, where Pogačar saw his lead come down slightly but by now too late to make a difference.
On the run-in to Siena, Pogačar started to enjoy himself. He nodded to the camera, high-fived a spectator just ahead of the Via Santa Caterina and, after skipping out of the saddle all the way up, punched the air as he negotiated the tight final bends. He raised both hands as he dipped down to the line, before dismounting and bowing to the crowd.
Behind, Seixas rode remarkably not only to keep the next group of chasers at bay on the run-in but then also to drop Del Toro, who’d been sitting on, on the Via Santa Caterina. Cycling has new superstars but the sport is very much still in the palm of Tadej Pogačar’s hands.
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