"Am I standing still? I was doing 500 watts" - Visma rider stunned with UAE's Strade Bianche leadout for Pogacar
Cycling
Tim Rex is one of Team Visma | Lease a Bike new signings for this season and has put himself in a position of high responsibility at Strade Bianche. The Dutchman was in the day's breakaway and put on a strong display, but couldn't help but to get shocked at the moment he was caught by an all-out leadout from UAE Team Emirates - XRG who were launching Tadej Pogacar's winning attack.
“Everybody wants to be in position from the very start, and they all know exactly where they have to be. I knew it was going to be stressful, but I believed in myself," Rex shared with IDLProCycling. The tactic for the team was to have someone in the breakaway, in a race that often becomes very tactic. But just making it to the front is its own separate and incredibly difficult challenge.
“So the plan was for one of our riders to make the day’s front group, but the start was raced so incredibly hard. On the second gravel sector I was in a good position, but then there was a crash in front of me. I got caught behind that, and from there I really had to suffer to get back to the front.”
However, the 21-year old had good legs on the day and also had a good sense of opportunity, managing then to get himself in the front. “The first time I got back to the front, I already felt like I was going to get dropped again very quickly. But then there was a moment when the road opened up in front of me and I thought: I’m just going to go full gas back to the front. Apparently everyone was hurting a bit, because three or four guys came with me and that’s how we got away".
But this escape attempt didn't last long, as the pace never truly slowed down in the peloton, and a raging rhythm from UAE Team Emirates - XRG gave opportunity for no-one to anticipate into the first key moment of the race: Monte Sante Marie.
Rex being caught with 83 kilometers to go from the breakaway
The incredible numbers at the top of the sport
With 83 kilometers to go, Rex and the surviving breakaway companions were caught by the peloton at the start of Monte Sante Marie. “It was full gas the whole time, but I managed to survive until Monte Sante Marie. My goal was to hit that sector first, but after 500 metres they came past me," he laughed. That wouldn't ordinarily be surprising, but that became the case once he looked at his power meter.
“I thought 'what is going on here, am I standing still?' I was doing 500 watts and those guys still came past me, not normal,” he joked. The stage was set, and after pulls from Florian Vermeersch and Jan Christen, only a few riders could even hold the wheel of Tadej Pogacar and Isaac del Toro.
On the most difficult part of the sector, Pogacar attacked and rode to victory. Behind, Visma's battle was a different one. “After that, I still tried to stay with Wout van Aert for a while, but that’s probably where I blew myself up a bit.”
Rex nevertheless didn't just consider his job done for the day after dropping out of contention for a top result, and continued his pursuit for a good position in Siena. “That dropped me a little further back, but even there it was still flat-out racing. I don’t even know what place we were racing for, but it was so hard. I haven’t suffered like that in a long time".
At the end he was 55th at the finish, but this being his debut in the race and also after a massive early breakaway effort. It was a promising performance ahead of the spring where he may have gained extra points in the fight to be in the lineup for the big classics.
“I just really love gravel riding too, also in the winter. So I genuinely enjoyed it, but I’m completely done. Now? I’ll be happy if I can get a bit of sleep on the bus," he concluded.
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
claps 18visitors 13
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Raise thine hand if the money you have made for retirement slips away on poor investments.Most of us will outlive our financial comforts because we don't have the financial acumen to ensure a comfortable lifelong retirement and that is a statistical fact not my opinion.Many millionaires have pissed their money away or had it taken away by so called conniving "financial advisors".The world of wealth is a dangerous place that most of us will never experience nor appreciate.
Brucegel15-11-2026 - You are interested in Pogi for one reason only, you feel like you are somehow related because you share some vague geographical identity. Other than that you have very little interest in cycling as all your posts show, if it can’t be connected to Pogi you have nothing to post. That said, recent activity here shows we are attracting quite a crowd from his region.Jumpyjohn15-11-2026
- From knowing past cycling stars with shops I can only say, think it through. Not only is it mundane after a while but it really doesn’t take you out of the limelight, in the end you’ll be trying to stay away from the place yourself whilst all your fans keep coming for you.Jumpyjohn15-11-2026
- Careful investment? I think he can live very comfortably with zero investments, what does he need more? The world would do well if more people set a target for how much they need or would make them “happy” and then stop worrying about perpetually having to make more.Jumpyjohn15-11-2026
- Yes, Roglic could theoretically have beaten Sepp. Jonas must have had complete confidence that he could come back and win the Vuelta another year. Visma had not allowed Roglic to ride the Tour that year, so his future did not look so bright, despite his narrow Giro win..Hills3315-11-2026
- So far, a good series about riders before my time, even if the text feels AI generated like so much on this site. About the rider, he seems like one of many who are active fan favorites but don’t survive in the stories of cycling, a few decades later - I didn’t really know anything about him and this was a good read, thank you!RidesHills15-11-2026
- A calm, honest documentary, a bit of hagiography but mostly not too much. When he talks about a coffee shop, it aligns with several things in his world - he might want calm, but he does (more than a little bit) have someone near him (his fiancee) who makes sure that things happen the way he expects. Many atheletes have retired only to find out just how much others were taking care of their lives for them. If they work out (I'm old, things happen), I am sure it will take a renegotiation, which is a good thing. I truly enjoyed watching it, seeing him, seeing her, seeing the whole system built around him.RidesHills15-11-2026
- You do? My mother grew up around Bleiburg (Pliberk), across the border in Austria . My grandparents lived close to the train station in Bleiburg, and I spent a lot of the 70s and 80s there. The "Jugo" train of my youth went to Dravograd or Maribor, exotic places (behind the wall) at the time. What a moment that was, the 10 days war of '91 - times sure have changed.RidesHills15-11-2026
- I hope he rides a bitmij15-11-2026
- Greatest athlete this world has ever produced ! LOL ... you definitely are a comdian ! Cycling is so sprecialized and you think he's the greatest athlete ever ! Still laughing !frieders315-11-2026
Loading
4 Comments