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 in 1971, when after Ocaña's exhibition in Orcières-Merlette in front of Eddy Merckx, he planned to attack downhill, on the way out. It was raining and they went out without a raincoat. Lucien Aimar smelled something; A Kas rider noticed the bicycles, whose derailleurs had been raised to fit a larger chainring. The others, surprised, dedicated themselves to chasing all day. When they reached the finish line, there was no audience. They were two hours early.
But some cyclists are transparent, like Tadej Pogacar. The Slovenian returned to the competition after 140 days. At the start of the Strade Bianche, he left the bus conclave and to the first microphone that approached him, he told the plans: “I will attack in Santa María.” He wasn't a bluff, nor a bluff, and he didn't mean to mislead anyone either. It was a warning. He who has the strength should follow me, so there, on the eighth stretch of gravel and dirt, when the storm hit hardest, he kept his word. “My teammates were on their last legs, so it was time.†.
He neither looked back nor got up from his seat. He simply accelerated, and although Pidcock and Simmons wanted to follow him, the effort lasted only seconds. There were 81 kilometers left until Piazza del Campo in Siena, and Pogacar was already flying alone. As soon as we attacked, the clouds opened and the sun came out in Tuscany, as if the meteorological phenomena surrendered to it, which opened a gap behind it.
The longest Strade Bianche (215 kilometers) in its still short history, was finished when there was still 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 sprockets and the chain and dirtying his jersey, but fresh as a lettuce after subduing all his rivals like a runaway horse. those who participate in the Palio of Siena, there in that same square where he raised his arms first and the bicycle later.
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 with 500 meters left to go, and arrived alone at the finish line in Piazza del Field. Third was Demi Vollering.
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