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, at the Molteni of the 1971 Tour, when Ocaña, after his performance in Orcières-Merlette against Eddy Merckx, which distanced the Belgian by nine minutes, planned to attack downhill from the start. It was raining and the Albani runners set off without raincoats. Lucien Aimar smelled something; A Kas rider noticed the bikes whose derailleurs had been raised to fit a larger chainring. When the starting gun went off, they had to walk to move the huge development forward. The others were surprised and spent the whole day pursuing him. 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 for the tour.
But some cyclists are transparent, like Tadej Pogacar. The Slovenian returned to competition after 140 days. In the Strade Bianche game, he left the bus conclave, where his director had taken the envelope stamped “Confidential” containing the strategy from the safe, and announced the plans to the first microphone that approached him: “I will “Santa Maria.” It was neither a boast nor a bluff, nor was it intended to mislead anyone. It was a warning. He who has the strength should follow me, and so he stopped On the eighth stretch of gravel and dirt, when the storm hit hardest, he said: “My teammates were on their last legs, so it was time.”
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He neither looked back nor got up from the saddle. He simply accelerated, and although Pidcock and Simmons tried to follow him, the effort only lasted seconds. It was still 81 kilometers to Piazza del Campo in Siena, and Pogacar was already flying alone. As soon as he attacked, the clouds opened and the sun appeared in Tuscany, as if the meteorological phenomena had surrendered to him, opening a gap behind him. At kilometer 140 the lead over the pursuers was almost a minute. Twenty kilometers later it had risen from 2.36 m at 170 m to 3.29 m.
The longest Strade Bianche (215 kilometers) in its short history has been left with more than a third remaining due to the Pogacar phenomenon, which began as it ended, but this has not changed anything. He remains the same, insatiable, predatory, unforgiving towards rivals, but also friendly, affable, smiling, as he was in the last kilometer when he climbed the stone slabs of Santa Caterina. At 15% gradient, with the dry gray mud sticking to the pipes, settling between the crowns and the chain and staining his jersey, but fresh as a salad after overwhelming all his rivals, like a runaway horse, that takes part in the Palio of Siena, there in the same square where he first raised his arms and then his bicycle.
Nobody coughed on him. Only his celebration reduced the gap to second place Tom Skujins to 2.42. Third was Van Gils and fourth was Pidcock, the 2023 winner. The others arrived like lost souls, far from the Pogacar phenomenon, which starts very strongly. As always, here we go.
In the women's event, held a few hours earlier, uncertainty about victory continued all the way to the Santa Caterina slope. On the stone slabs of the demanding final ramp, world champion Lotte Kopecky left her previous companion Elisa Longo Borghini behind 500 meters from the finish and reached the finish line on the Piazza del Campo alone. Demi Vollering came third.
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