"Am I standing still? I was doing 500 watts" - Visma rider stunned with UAE's Strade Bianche leadout for Pogacar

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.

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.