Everything as expected. Tadej Poga\u010dar is simply the strongest rider in the world, and he didn\u2019t miss the chance to prove it once again at Strade Bianche 2026. The Slovenian, in a sort of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu of the 2024 edition, made the decisive move on Monte Sante Marie, dropping everyone and riding clear with 78.5 km to go (two years ago he went solo with 81 km remaining).<\/p>\n
Grit and determination were not enough for Paul Seixas (Decathlon\u2013CMA CGM), who tried to hold on for as long as he could but eventually went into the red and let the world champion break away. At his age, however, Poga\u010dar was not even a professional yet, which means this kid still has plenty of time to grow, come back and win in Piazza del Campo. The young Frenchman still managed to drop Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG) on the final wall of Via Santa Caterina, relegating the Mexican to third place in the same square where he wore the Maglia Rosa last year.<\/p>\n
Tadej Poga\u010dar, poker at the Strade Bianche<\/p>\n
RACE REPORT \u2013 The race was animated by an early breakaway featuring Tibor Del Grosso (Alpecin\u2013Premier Tech), Martin Marcellusi (Bardiani CSF\u20137 Saber), Jack Haig (Ineos Grenadiers), Patrick Konrad (Lidl\u2013Trek), Samuele Zoccarato (MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort), Adrien Boichis (Red Bull\u2013Bora\u2013hansgrohe), Anders Foldager (Jayco AlUla), Tim Rex (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Davide Toneatti (XDS Astana). Unfortunately for them, UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG kept everything under control from the start, holding them within reach and reeling them in before Monte Sante Marie.<\/p>\n
Then, Jan Christen lifted the pace dramatically, shattering the peloton and leaving only a group of nine favourites at the front. Not for long, though, because Poga\u010dar launched his move with 80 km to go. Seixas, Del Toro and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) tried to follow, but they were dropped one after the other.<\/p>\n
For the Slovenian, it became the usual solo exhibition that only ended in Piazza del Campo. Behind him, a chasing group initially formed with Jan Christen, Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), Paul Seixas, Paul Lapeira (Decathlon\u2013CMA CGM), Ben Healy, Michael Valgren (EF Education\u2013EasyPost), Cl\u00e9ment Braz Afonso, Romain Gr\u00e9goire (Groupama\u2013FDJ), Quinn Simmons (Lidl\u2013Trek), Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin\u2013Premier Tech), Wout Van Aert, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Andreas Kron (Uno-X Mobility). Between Colle Pinzuto and Le Tolfe, they were reduced first to seven and then to two, when Seixas rode clear with Del Toro to contest second place.<\/p>\n
For Poga\u010dar, this is his fourth victory at Strade Bianche, giving him the outright record just one day after the ceremony in which the Colle Pinzuto sector was dedicated to him. At 19, Seixas becomes the youngest rider ever to reach the podium, while Del Toro has already said he will return soon to try to win it. We will be hearing a lot about these three riders this season.<\/p>\n
FINISHING ORDER<\/p>\n
1 \u2013 Tadej Poga\u010dar (UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG), 203 km in 4h45\u201915\u201d, average speed 42.699 km\/h
2 \u2013 Paul Seixas (Decathlon\u2013CMA CGM Team) at 1\u201900\u201d
3 \u2013 Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG) at 1\u201909\u201d<\/p>\n
Shortly after crossing the finish line, Strade Bianche Cr\u00e9dit Agricole winner Tadej Poga\u010dar said: \u201cFirst of all I have to thank the team. My teammates did an incredible job from the start, controlling the breakaway and setting a very strong pace. I\u2019m happy to have won, especially for them. Paul Seixas tried to follow me on Monte Sante Marie and it wasn\u2019t easy to drop him. I told myself I had to go full gas all the way to the top, and that\u2019s what I did. It\u2019s the best way to start the season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everything as expected. Tadej Poga\u010dar is simply the strongest rider in the world, and he didn\u2019t miss the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-463556","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\/463556","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=463556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}