Strade Bianche: untouchable, Pogacar flies away 50 kilometers from the finish for a prestigious victory

Tadej Pogacar (UAE) flew over the Strade Bianche this Saturday, the Italian classic which takes stony paths, to win detached on the Piazza del Campo in Siena after a solitary breakaway of more than 50 kilometers.

Double winner of the Tour de France at 23, Pogacar pushed back his next, the Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), 41, about forty seconds in the heart of the medieval city of Siena.

The Dane Kasper Asgreen (Quick Step) took 3rd place at the end of the 184 kilometers of this recently created race (2007) but very popular in the peloton.

Pogacar was caught in a maxi-fall which affected part of the peloton about a hundred kilometers from the finish.

But he was able to continue the race just like the world champion Julian Alaphilippe, author of a spectacular cabriole and finally 58th at the finish.

The impressive images of the sun by Julian Alaphilippe.

The world champion is gone.

#StradeBIanche pic.twitter.com/xsg0EnZcwR

— The Gruppetto (@LeGruppetto) March 5, 2022

Unafraid of the distance to the finish, the Slovenian went on the attack in a long gravel sector to secure an advantage of almost a minute and a half over the peloton, with Spaniard Carlos Rodriguez intercalated.

If he lost around thirty seconds on his first pursuers before the last 20 kilometers, he then managed the gap both on the stony sectors and on the bitumen.

He even offered himself the luxury of clapping in the hand of one of his supporters at the foot of the final ramp.

"It's incredible!", Put the outgoing winner of the Tour into perspective in relation to his superiority.

“I was always looking behind where the others were, it was really very intense”.

Already 4 successes this season

Asked about his long attack, he explained: “I tried to give the maximum and nobody could follow.

So I continued...” “I find it hard to realize, he added.

It's the first time I've done something like this.

But, in cycling, you never know how it will turn out..."

In the absence of the "Vans", the two previous winners (Wout van Aert in 2020, Mathieu van der Poel in 2021), Pogacar achieved a number comparable to those of the Swiss Fabian Cancellara in the cobbled classics of the early 2010s, by van der Poel and van Aert more recently.

Winner last year of two of the five "monuments", Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Lombardy, he plans to run four of these great classics this season, the next being Milan-Sanremo on March 19.

The Slovenian won his 4th success of the year.

From his first race, he dominated the UAE Tour, with two stage victories in the two summit finishes, and therefore continued with the Strade Bianche, a race he was competing for the fourth time (30th in 2019, 13th in 2020, 7th in 2021).

Pogacar continued the raid on the UAE team, which triumphed throughout the week and is leading the way in victories, with 13 bouquets already at this stage of the season.