Tadej Pogacar announces where he will attack in the Strade Bianche, he does it and wins

The teams lock themselves in the bus, the director gathers the cyclists and, isolated from the world, explains to them the strategy to surprise their rivals.

Before they did it in hotels, like Giorgio Albani, in the 1971 Molteni in the Tour, when after Ocaña's exhibition in Orcières-Merlette against Eddy Merckx that distanced the Belgian by nine minutes, he planned to attack downhill, from the start .

It was raining and the Albani runners went out without raincoats.

Lucien Aimar smelled something;

A Kas rider noticed the bicycles, whose derailleurs had been raised to fit a larger chainring.

When the start was given, they had to take a run on foot to move the huge development. The others, surprised, dedicated themselves to chasing all day.

When they reached the finish line, there was no audience.

They were two hours early.

The mayor of Marseille, Gaston Defferre, declared his eternal hatred of the Tour.

But some cyclists are transparent, like Tadej Pogacar.

The Slovenian returned to the competition after 140 days.

In the Strade Bianche game, he left the bus conclave in which his director had taken the envelope stamped “confidential” with the strategy from the safe, and to the first microphone that approached him, he told the plans. : “I will attack in Santa María.”

He wasn't bluffing, nor was he bluffing, and he didn't mean to mislead anyone either.

It was a warning.

He who has the strength, let him follow me, so there, on the eighth section of gravel and dirt, when the storm hit hardest, he kept his word.

“My teammates were on their last legs, so it was time.”

More information

O Gran Camiño gives birth to O Gran Jonas Vingegaard

He neither looked back nor got up from the saddle.

He simply accelerated, and although Pidcock and Simmons wanted to follow him, the effort lasted just seconds.

There were 81 kilometers left until Piazza del Campo in Siena, and Pogacar was already flying alone.

As soon as he attacked, the clouds opened and the sun came out in Tuscany, as if the meteorological phenomena surrendered to him, which opened a gap behind him.

At kilometer 140, the advantage over the pursuers was almost a minute.

Twenty kilometers later, from 2.36 and at 170, it had risen to 3.29m.

The longest Strade Bianche (215 kilometers) in its still short history, was finished with more than a third left, due to the Pogacar phenomenon, which began as it ended, which has not changed anything.

He remains the same, insatiable, predatory, implacable with rivals, but also friendly, affable, smiling, as in the last kilometer, ascending the flagstones of Santa Caterina.

At 15% gradient, with the dry, gray silt stuck to the tubulars, embedded between the crowns and the chain and dirtying his jersey, but fresh as a lettuce after subduing all his rivals like a runaway horse that participates in the Palio of Siena, there in that same square where he raised his arms first and then his bicycle.

Nobody coughed on him.

Only his celebrations cut the gap to second, Tom Skujins, to 2.42.

Third was Van Gils and fourth was Pidcock, the 2023 winner. The others arrived like lost souls, very far from the Pogacar phenomenon, which is starting very strong.

As always, let's go.

In the women's event, held a few hours earlier, the uncertainty about victory continued until the Santa Caterina slope.

On the flagstones of the demanding final ramp, the world champion, Lotte Kopecky, left behind her companion until then, Elisa Longo Borghini when there were 500 meters left to go, and reached the finish line alone in Piazza del Campo .

Third was Demi Vollering.

You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on