"He has started in the 'Tadej Pogacar' way" - Even Mauro Gianetti surprised by incredible level of UAE Team Emirates leader at Strade Bianche 2024

Mauro Gianetti, Tadej Pogacar's boss at UAE Team Emirates, was unsurprisingly impressed with the performance of his rider at Strade Bianche 2024. The Slovenian powered clear solo with 80km to go, eventually winning by almost three minutes.

"He has started in an incredible way, in the 'Tadej Pogacar' way," begins Gianetti's post-race recap to Eurosport. "We knew he was fine, we knew he was fit, but we could never be sure. It wasn't planned for him to attack so far from the finish, but well, he did. He probably wanted to try and see what happened, but he looked so strong that he was able to go off on his own."

"It's not easy, it's something that had never been seen, even for Tadej Pogacar, he impressed us," Gianetti continues glowingly. "We knew that he had worked well, that he has arrived well from last season in which he had a lot of stress. He stopped 3 weeks after the Tour, that gave him a lot of mental energy, he needed to stop and now he was looking forward to a start of the campaign with Strade, San Remo, Liège, Giro and Tour. He has worked well and can still improve."

Finally, Gianetti also praises riders like Remco Evenepoel, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert for trying different things in cycling and for "not being afraid to lose" (he notable leaves Jonas Vingegaard off the list):

"He does a lot of good for cycling, with Remco, with Van der Poel, with Van Aert, they are riders who have the desire to do things, they are not afraid to lose, they have the desire to win."