Scintillating Strade Bianche Showing by Pogačar with Another Storming Solo Move

Tadej Pogačar got his year off to a dazzling start on Saturday, capturing his fourth victory in Strade Bianche with a solo move 80km from the finish.

The world champion pushed clear on the Monte Sante Marie sector and while Tom Pidcock initially held his wheel on that downhill section, the Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling rider experienced a dropped chain and slipped back.

Pogačar (UAE Emirates-XRG) persisted and fended off all efforts to close him down again, hammering the pedals around and finishing well clear in Sienna.

Teammate Isaac Del Toro and Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) were the next best and leaped clear of the chasers with 17km to go. Seixas did all the chasing but couldn’t make any impression on Pogačar’s lead, with the multiple winner smiling at the cameras en route to a record fourth victory.

“Probably I always say this but chapeau to the teammates today. Everybody did an incredible job,” Pogačar said. “It was just beautiful to see all the guys in the team performing so well. It was an honor to ride with such a team today and to deliver the win. I am super happy.”

Seixas was clearly the second strongest rider in the race, briefly bridging to Pogačar after he got his gap but then blowing up right away. He did all the chasing with Del Toro on his wheel and, despite that energy expended, still blew the Mexican away on the final climb of Via Santa Caterina.

He finished exactly one minute behind Pogačar, with Del Toro at 1:09.

“I saw that he was chasing really hard on the steepest part of the climb, on Sante Maria,” Pogačar said of 19 year old Seixas. “I said to myself ‘I will go all out to the top and then I will see if he can bridge. Either he will come to my wheel or he will make a gap.’

“In the end I saw it was enough. I knew that Isaac was there and Jan also, so this helped a lot to go alone.”

Seixas underlines huge promise

Pogačar started the day tied with three-time champ Fabian Cancellara as the joint record holder. It was his first race of the season and while he had posted some very impressive training climbing times online, it was the earliest opportunity for commentators and fans to really see how he was going.

His UAE Emirates-XRG team was in control early on, hauling back a nine-man breakaway containing riders such as Tibor Del Grosso (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Patrick Konrad (Lidl-Trek), and Jack Haig (Ineos Grenadiers) with just under 84km remaining.

Former winner Tom Pidcock was motivated to shine but experienced a dropped chain at that point, just as the pace was heating up. He was able to return and while he initially marked Pogačar when the latter pushed ahead of the group on a descent of the Monte Sante Marie sector with 80km to go, he once again experienced chain issues and had to drop back.

Young phenom Seixas bridged to Pogačar with 78.7km to go but blew up almost immediately. He was caught by Del Toro and chased for quite some time with the Mexican latched onto his wheel. Pogačar had 44 seconds on those two with 74km to go, with US rider Matteo Jorgenson (Visma Lease a Bike), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) and Pidcock in the next group and catching those two 7km later.

They in turn were joined by Ben Healy and Andreas Kron (Uno-X Mobility), with a chase group powered by Wout Van Aert (Visma Lease a Bike) bridging with 52km left.

Seixas was feeling antsy and attacked on sector 9, the Colle Pinzuto, but was quickly marked by Del Toro. Pogačar was 1:56 ahead at the summit there but with plenty of hard racing behind, the gap dropped to 1:20 with 27km to go.

Seixas leaped clear on the penultimate gravel sector, the final ascent of the Colle Pinzuto, with 17km to go . Only Del Toro able to go with him. They were 1:15 back when Pogačar hit Le Tolfe again with 12.3km to go, and he continued to fend them off as the kilometers ticked down.

‘We go day by day, race by race’

Pogačar has dominated the sport in recent seasons and is aiming to go even better again this time around. Does his storming debut mean this year will indeed see him step up a level again?

“We will see,” he smiled. “We will see. It is a great start to the season. We will see.

“Today was the first day of the year. We will go day by day, race by race, and we will see how it goes.”

Next up for him is Milan-San Remo on March 21, with the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix coming after that. He’s been trying to win San Remo for years and knows he needs to be even stronger than last year if he is to triumph.

Pogačar will work hard between now and then to be in the best possible shape, and to try to fend off Mathieu van der Poel plus all other contenders to land what would be his second Italian victory this year.