{"id":487513,"date":"2026-02-20T11:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T11:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/487513\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T11:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T11:20:08","slug":"rockets-foiled-again-by-pogacar-who-destroys-strava-koms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/487513\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets foiled again by Poga\u010dar, who destroys Strava KOMs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Not only amateurs treat chasing KOMs on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/strava\" title=\"Strava\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Strava<\/a> as a big deal. Pros regularly challenge each other on the well-known platform too. It adds something fun to training \u2014 that extra bit of motivation to push harder. But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/tdt-unibet-cycling-team\" title=\"Unibet Rose Rockets\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Unibet Rose Rockets<\/a> are learning the hard way that there is always someone faster.Tadej Poga\u010dar has been completing his latest training sessions in Spain. The world champion is currently based on the Costa Blanca, one of cycling\u2019s key winter hotspots. There, the Slovenian logged a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.strava.com\/activities\/17449798422\/segments\/3459548137658090356\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">145-kilometre ride<\/a>, taking in a number of well-known climbs. And even when Poga\u010dar claims he\u2019s taking it easy, the speed is still outrageous.The Rockets experienced that earlier this year. Norwegian rider Cedrik Bakke Christophersen set the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/cycling\/at-unibet-and-in-tietemas-house-they-see-with-pain-in-their-hearts-how-tadej-pogacar-again-leaves-no-crumbs\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">top <\/a>time on the famous Coll de Rates \u2014 an outstanding ride \u2014 but just before Christmas Poga\u010dar went even quicker, by no less than 24 seconds. \u201cBad timing,\u201d Poga\u010dar joked on Instagram. Still, the Rockets weren\u2019t done.<\/p>\n<p>Christophersen proved to be a true KOM hunter. On the Collao Laguar por Castells and the Collao de Garga, the 24-year-old \u2014 who finished 12th in the Tour de la Provence this week \u2014 posted the fastest times. The gauntlet was immediately thrown down to Poga\u010dar, who responded a month later. And not quietly.<\/p>\n<p>Read on below the Strava data!<\/p>\n<p>Poga\u010dar destroys Rockets\u2019 KOMs<\/p>\n<p>On the Collao Laguar por Castells \u2014 a 5.5-kilometre climb at 6.7% \u2014 Christophersen had needed 14 minutes and 3 seconds. But the world champion flew up it like a high-speed train: 58 seconds faster. That also made him 1 minute and 19 seconds quicker than Mathieu van der Poel, who rode the segment four years ago.<\/p>\n<p>And the Collao de Garga \u2014 a slightly shorter test at 4.3 kilometres with an average gradient of 7% \u2014 was also devoured by the Slovenian. Once again, he was well clear of the Norwegian, who conceded 42 seconds to the unstoppable all-round machine. The Rockets could only laugh about it on Instagram: \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t have woken the sleeping dog.\u201d They added: \u201cSave a few KOMs for the rest of us, Tadej!\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not only amateurs treat chasing KOMs on Strava as a big deal. Pros regularly challenge each other on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82,59069,1422,154679],"class_list":["post-487513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-strava","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-unibet-rose-rockets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}