MAGNIFICENT POGACAR polishes off his fourth Strada Bianchi

 

“IT’S NOT MUCH FUN” said Britain’s Tom Pidcock as

Pogacar sailed to an unprecedented fourth win a row at Strada Bianchi on Saturday.

I agreed with him. But for a different reason.

Pidock was referring to his misfortunes,  – he had unshipped his chain while trying to close on Pogacar and that was that. The past winner finished a gallant seventh.

No, the fun aspect for me went out of it watching the classy opposition

outclassed yet again by this phenomena  – unable to raise their game to stop the runaway.

 

As for Pog, he opened his season as he left off in 2025. Then it was with decisive long lone break to his take fifth consecutive Tour of Lombardy in October.   Now, five months later, he opens his 2026 campaign exactly as he left off – with a show of force which defies explanation.

For  Pogacar’s has once again destroyed the opposition with his trademark warp factor acceleration. And he won this 204-kilometre tough gravel classic in Tuscany attacking alone with 78km to go.

Only the impressive second place by 19-year-old Paul Seixas one minute behind promised a regime change in the near future – a real French prospect.

Pogacar's UAE Emirates-XRG team-mate Isaac del Toro was third.

 

It is so clear Pog is off a different class altogether. Maybe from a different galaxy. He’s probably got a saucer parked in an underground garage somewhere.

 

As brilliant and so impressively strong as he is, I admit a race reduced to a one-man band is  no longer that much fun.

 
What a pity Holland’s star Mathieu Van Der Poel opted not to ride. He’s also from a different  galaxy, probably.

He’d  have challenged Pog. He might have reached him, given him a fright.  The pair have been at each other hammer and nails in the classics before.

 I’d read he was put off because of an extra long climb in this year’s edition. Didn’t suit him.

But on the day we learn there was no extra climb.

Anyway, with Pog, it’s like watching a first cat destroy a third cat race and that’s no disrespect to other pros.

 

Perhaps organisers should handicap Pog and  his UAE team. Load their bikes with saddlebags filled with sand.

Or set the field off f ive minutes in front and let’s see how long it is before they catch up.

 

“Ha, ha. Titter ye not”, to borrow a catch phrase from t he late comedian Frankie Howard.  For there is race like this in Pog’s home country, where their hero is held back behind a field of hopefuls  before being unleashed to see if can catch up and still win.

He usually does, but  last year he was upstaged – if that’s the word – by an English rider!

 

This fun challenge takes place on Pogacar’s home roads in Krvavec, Slovenia. This is the  annual Pogi Challenge charity race, against 1,189 cyclists up a 15km climb with 1,189m of elevation gain.

Pogačar passed every participant with the exception of four-time British hill climb champion, Andrew Feather, 40,  from Bath.

The charity ride started with a non-timed 9.1km warm-up, before participants head up the timed climb itself. Sportingly, Pogačar gave them a six-minute head start and Feather held him off.

The thrill for the opposion is the antipication of  feeling that rush of air as the star rockets by!

 

Chabbey wins women’s Strada Bianchi in thrilling finish.

The women’s Strada Bianchi was far more unpredictable, as five riders battled the famous uphill finish in Siena, where Swiss champion Elise Chabbey won for the first time following a thrilling finish to the 133km race.

 

Seven riders sped onto the Via Santa Catarina, the final ascent through narrow streets to the Piazza del Campo finish, where three were dropped in the power finish.

Italian road champion Elisa Longo Borghini whose earlier breakaway had drawn top rivals to give chase and join her, was still full of fire and led most of the way up.

But in shoulder to shoulder battle for the last but one corner, Borghini gave best to Franziska Kock and Katarzyna Niewiadoma, as Chabbey, marking her time, shot down the inside and clear for victory .

 

 

 

Will he won't he...as Van Der Poel now doubtful starter in Strada Bianchi

 

BATTLE of the Giants on hold as some news reports say Mathieu Van Der Poel has decided not ro ride Saturday's Strada Bianchi where world champion Tadej Pogacar is bidding for a fourth consecutive victory.

While some news outlets tonight still say Van Der Poel will start, others say the additional climbing in the 2026 edition doesn't suit him and he will not be on the start line.

So the eagerly awaited clash of the giants in Tuscany Italy may be on hold.

Which is real downer after we saw how Van der Poel, who ran amok in the winter cyclo-cross season, rode away with   last Saturday’s opening Flemish classic, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad,

Did you see it?

One month – 28 days to be precise – after Mathieu Van Der Poel destroyed the field to take a record 8^th world cyclo-cross title in his native HollandollH, notching up, on the way, a record 50   UCI world cyclo-cross victories in his career, the flying Dutchman broke away to win the opening Flemish classic of 2026, the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad with the same stunning show of force!

It was his first victory of Omloop, and he rode 174 top roadmen off his wheel to carry it off.

Whether it is an hour-long ‘cross in clinging mud, sand and obstacles or a five hour road race featuring a dozen short cobbled climbs it makes no difference. Van Der Poel avoids the many spills in the peloton and when he puts the power down he’s gone.

Safe to say he’s on song.  We can expect a showdown between him and Pogacar as VDP  attempts a fourth  victory in Milan – San Remo later this month and a fourth consecutive win in Paris – Roubaix in April. The latter would equal a record shared only by Roger DeVlaeminck and Tom Boonen.

Pog, a winner of all the other “monuments”, has yet to win either Milan San Remo (he was third last year) or Paris Roubaix (second in  his debut last year, after a puncture). 

Van Der Poel’s exhibition in Belgium last Saturday was a sublime performance by an athlete at the top of his game. I caught the last hour or so live on the box so I’m not even going to attempt a coherent summary of the whole race.

There was the day long break.

Two hours to go and the chase was well underway with the field strung out and shedding riders from the back.

The action unfolded on the Molenberg climb when Florian Vermeersch led the field, with Van der Poel sat on his wheel. There was a brief frightener when Rick Pluimers slid out right in front of Van der Poel whose acrobatic cyclo-cross skills kicked in. He appeared to momentarily stall before skipping neatly sideways to carry on – all in the blink of an eye.

So it was he closed a gap to Vermeersch almost instantly and took control over the summit.  Up to them swept Tim van Dijke and this trio soon swept up to and rode straight by the leading break, who hitched a lift.

Six men on front. It was all Van der Poel now, a locomotive with five trucks hooked up to him, with only Vermeersch offering to contribute.

 

On the wicked cobbled climb of the Muur van Geraardsbergen – the wall of Flanders with the church at the summit - VDP accelerated clear of his companions. There was no attack, as such. He didn’t even get out of the saddle. Van Der Poel simply rode away from them but it took a massive effort, for he was lunging at the pedals in a huge gear on the wickedly steep cobbled climb. He was round the corner and gone, lost to sight by the chasers with less than 20km to go.

His late companions looked spent. It was over for them. As for the peloton at one minute they would not pull him back as a group. It would take a small break of two or three men.

But they had better be quick about it. There was an 8km tailwind section coming up, before a left turn and final seven kilometres run for home. Any counter attack would need to get away before that tailwind section otherwise even a tired peloton could more easily pull them back. No one got clear.

Nothing to be done.  Only a mechanical could stop the Dutchman superstar.

He was poetry in motion.

Behind him, Tim van Dijke outsprinted Florian Vermeersch for the runner-up spot.

So VDP nailed his colours to the mast and his task now is replicating this form for Milan – San Remo in a few weeks’ time.

And in the meantime attention switches to Strada Bianchi on Saturday, when Pogacar starts favourite on the white stoney dusty hilly roads of Tuscany.

Pogacar as defending champion will be bidding for his fourth title here.