Tadej Pogacar puts on a show in Tuscany, check the results and watch the finish

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) won the 18th Strade Bianche, in one of the moments that can be considered one of the most magnificent in the history of cycling, after attacking 81 km from the finish line, taking off in a solo flight and passing the finish line in Siena with several minutes ahead of Tom Skujins (Lidl-Trek), 2nd place. Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny) completed the podium in 3rd position.

Fast start to the race

The race started attractively with five cyclists escaping. Dion Smith (Intermarché-Wanty), Mark Donovan (Q36.5), Lawson Craddock (Jayco AlUla), Nils Brun (Tudor) and Anders Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) joined forces and gained a two and a half minute lead. However, the UAE Emirates and EF Education-EasyPost teams quickly began to chip away at this advantage.

When both cyclists were caught again, American champion Quinn Simmons attacked again during torrential rain falling in Tuscany. Simmons was followed by a group of around twenty cyclists, including four representatives from Visma-Lease a Bike (Attila Valter, Ben Tulett, Christophe Laporte and Sepp Kuss), 3 from UAE Team Emirates (Tim Wellens, Isaac del Toro and Tadej Pogacar ), as well as Ben Healy, Matej Mohoric and Tom Pidcock.

Pogacar leads a solitary escape

Tim Wellens took the lead of the peloton at Monte Sante Marie, working for Tadej Pogacar. Pogacar attacked 81 kilometers before the finish line, pulling away from the rest of the pack and quickly building a significant lead.

A few moments later, Pogacar already had an advantage of more than a minute over the chasing pack and, despite there still being 75 km to go, it looked like the race could already be over.

Fight for 2nd place

Maxim Van Gils tried to catch Pogacar, but with the risk of being alone in the chase, the Lotto Dstny cyclist waited for the group, almost two minutes behind Pogacar, with 70 km to go.

Despite a counterattack led by Romain Bardet and Benoit Cosnefroy, with 50km to go, Pogacar’s lead increased to an incredible 2min 40sec.

Heading into the final 15 km, behind the Slovenian fugitive, Maxim van Gils and Toms Skujins, after an attack on the chasing group, were the closest opponents three minutes away, with the main ‘platoon’ (group of less than 20 pilots) almost five minutes ago.

Pogacar always welcomed by the public in Tuscany

Last year’s winner Tom Pidcock made one last attempt at the podium, attacking the chase group with 10km to go.

In the end the situation was Pogacar with a three-minute lead, then Van Gils and Skujins with Pidcock between the pair and the main chasing group.

In the end Skujins ended up beating Van Gils on the final climb and took 2nd place.

Pogacar’s undisputed victory

Tadej Pogacar, the leader of the UAE Emirates team, maintained his advantage and continued on to victory. Pogacar celebrated this great victory at length in the Piazza del Campo in Siena. This is the second time that Pogacar has won the gravel classic in Tuscany, having also won through a solo attack in 2022.