Tadej Pogačar dared to tell media he hoped to win his second Strade Bianche by attacking on the Monte Sante Maria, but that would mean going clear somewhere in the region of 80 kilometres from the finish line. Surely not.
But of course, if there’s anyone who can do it, Pogačar’s the man, even – or perhaps especially – in his first race of 2024. With teammate Tim Wellens leading the reduced bunch into the last 85 km and Quinn Simmons’ last probing attack neutralised, the Slovenian national champion looked around, wiped his lenses, and then exploded off the front. Sepp Kuss tried to follow after the briefest of hesitations, but in a matter of seconds, it was all over.
- UAE Team Emirates had laid their cards on the table early on – though, let’s face it, theirs is an open hand at most races. Pogačar’s teammates kept the five-rider breakaway on a short leash of no more than two-and-a-half minutes, and it was all back together with more than 100 kilometres left to race. There were a number of attacks, Quinn Simmons and Magnus Cort especially keen to get up the road, but UAE Team Emirates stayed in the driving seat all the way.
- After Pogačar’s attack with just over 81 km to go, Ben Healy and Maxim Van Gils were among the most determined to limit the damage and get a result out of the day, but there was so little cohesion in the group that the Slovenian’s margin was allowed to increase at near-terminal velocity.
- The attacking continued almost relentlessly in the scrambling chase, the stop-start nature only helping Pogačar as riders dropped and caught back on. Van Gils was finally able to make an attack stick with the help of in-form Lotto Dstny teammate Lennert van Eetvelt in the last 30 km, but it was Toms Skujiņš who was ultimately best of the rest, overcoming mechanicals along the way. He caught up to Van Gils just outside 21 km to go and never gave up, not letting the young Belgian go even after momentarily losing the wheel on the Via Santa Catarina climb to the finish.
Analysis:
- This is the fifth year in a row that Pogačar has won his first race of the season, and at least two weeks later than he’d typically make his debut. With most of the Classics scrubbed off his programme, the 25-year-old is mixing things up – and whittling things down – in 2024 as he builds towards his Giro d’Italia debut, which will be followed by a return to the Tour de France and another Olympic Games in what will be a busy summer. It certainly seems like training is going well for the young Slovenian if today’s 80-kilometre yomp through the Tuscan landscape is anything to go on, but some questioned the wisdom of going it alone for so long when he’s got such a busy season ahead. But perhaps he weighed up the relative load of one massive attack compared to the repeated accelerations and jostling for position that he’d have endured in a group. One thing’s for sure, Pogačar has put his Giro rivals on notice.
- Lotto Dstny’s young climbing talent continues to perform among the best in 2024. Van Gils and Van Eetvelt turned up with a string of top results apiece, and at Strade Bianche, the duo joined forces to put Van Gils into podium contention. At the finish, Van Eetvelt told media, “I thought I didn’t have the best legs, and I saw that Maxim was on a good day. So then I just decided to go full for him and my head stopped working at that moment.” That moment was a steep ramp about 40 km out where Van Eetvelt punched through the crowd with his teammate on his wheel, stretching the group out and providing a launchpad for Van Gils, who’d already been on the attack on multiple occasions earlier in the day. Attempts were made to close him down, but with Van Eetvelt playing sweeper, only the last-ditch power move by Skujiņš could impact the Belgian’s assault on the podium.
- This year’s Strade Bianche was 31 kilometres longer than we’re used to, putting the distance over 200 km (215 km) for the first time in its history, with 35 additional gravel kilometres, in what is apparently a bid from race organiser RCS Sport to pitch the race into Monument status. “By adding extra kilometres, we want to make the race even more epic. As if it were a race from the past,” Mauro Vegni told Sporza. “The race is already tough and we are only at the beginning of the season. The roads are still heavy and dirty.” While it seems apt that Pogačar’s second Strade Bianche victory came at the end of a solo effort that was almost exactly 30 km longer than his 2022 effort, not everyone appreciated the extra distance. Defending champion Tom Pidcock was the most vocal in the Piazza del Campo, where he crossed the line fourth: “We were racing as if it was the old parcours. It would have been fine, but when you add 40k on and you have 30 dead bodies … The result would have been the same if it was the same distance for me.”
Quote of the day:
“I don’t know. I mean, it’s a really beautiful race, but Monuments – I don’t know about the rules of cycling – but Monuments are the oldest races in the world. And unfortunately, Strade Bianche is not that old, but it has its own charm. “
Pogačar when asked if Strade Bianche could or should be considered a sixth Monument.
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