{"id":455257,"date":"2026-03-03T11:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/455257\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T11:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:57:09","slug":"i-hope-to-have-a-good-start-tadej-pogacar-excited-to-get-stuck-in-on-season-debut-at-strade-bianche-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/455257\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I hope to have a good start’ \u2013 Tadej Poga\u010dar ‘excited to get stuck in’ on season debut at Strade Bianche this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world champion Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a> is “excited to get stuck in” on his season debut at Strade Bianche<\/a> in Italy this Saturday.<\/p>\n

UAE Team Emirates-XRG confirmed their roster for the race on Monday evening, including Poga\u010dar<\/a> and the six riders that will ride alongside him: Isaac Del Toro<\/a>, Jan Christen, Felix Gro\u00dfschartner, Domen Novak, Florian Vermeersch and Kevin Vermaerke.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The four-time Tour de France<\/a> champion has won the previous two editions of the race \u2013 three in total \u2013 crashing into a ditch with 50km to go last year<\/a>, before attacking to win with an almost minute-and-a-half gap to Tom Pidcock<\/a> (Pinarello<\/a> Q36.5<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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\u201cStrade is a race where I have unforgettable memories,\u201d Poga\u010dar said in quotes attributed to him on the UAE Team Emirates-XRG website.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy record there is pretty good and I hope that I will be in a good position again come Saturday. We expect there to be some strong rivals, the startlist is always at a high level for these big races and it should make things exciting for the fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my first race of the season, and I hope to have a good start. I\u2019ve been cheering on from the couch until now, so I\u2019m excited to get stuck in myself again and finally race. The team has been on a good wave at the moment with many wins already and we hope to continue that over the next few races.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Tadej\n<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar soloed to victory with around 20km to go last year after crashing on a downhill section. <\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The last time Poga\u010dar competed was when he won Il Lombardia<\/a> last October, almost five months ago. It was his last of 20 victories in 2025, which also included a second Tour of Flanders<\/a>, a third Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge<\/a>, four Tour de France stage wins, and both the world and European road titles.<\/p>\n

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Among the other riders on the start list for Strade Bianche are previous winners Wout van Aert<\/a> (Visma-Lease a Bike<\/a>), Julian Alaphilippe<\/a> (Tudor Pro Cycling) and Pidcock<\/a>, last year\u2019s runner-up. There is also growing excitement around 19-year-old Paul Seixas <\/a>(Decathlon CMA CGM), who is considered in his native France to be the heir to Poga\u010dar\u2019s throne.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Strade Bianche will be the 20th edition of the one-day race. It takes place in Tuscany, Italy, and counts 14 gravel sectors which cover 64km of the total 201km.<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s race will start in Siena at 11:40 local time, 10:40 UK time. It is expected to finish in the same city\u2019s iconic Piazza del Campo around 16:30 local time, 15:30 UK time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world champion Tadej Poga\u010dar is “excited to get stuck in” on his season debut at Strade Bianche…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-455257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}