"How you adapt to having a big favourite like Tadej Pogacar..." - Former pro Thomas de Gendt on how rivals should tackle Strade Bianche

Strade Bianche is one of the most difficult races on the calendar with its steep climbs and descents; gravel roads and consistently challenging roads from start to finish. Hence, it's often a race where the strongest does come away with the win, and in this case Tadej Pogacar is likely to be in that position this Saturday. Former pro and current gravel races Thomas de Gendt has spoken about the upcoming Tuscan race.

"If you want to do well in Strade Bianche and your name isn't Tadej Pogacar, then it's definitely a good idea to have done a few one-day races beforehand, and if one of them at least is Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, there are several advantages. That's because Strade and Omloop are both very nervous races," De Gendt argued in a column for Cyclingnews.

Whilst it is not part of the cobbled classics, the Italian race shares a key aspect with them which is the importance of positioning. The repeated short and explosive efforts combined with the current changes of direction and narrow roads makes it imperative to keep the amount of efforts to the lowest. It is something that comes with experience and also a strong collective to aid with positioning. However, knowing most of the top riders can do so quite well, what needs to be done to defeat Pogacar is adapt different tactics. But against a rider of such level, it often is the case that tactics barely make a difference in the outcome.

"Then there's the race itself and how you adapt to having a big favourite like Tadej Pogacar, which is very similar to Omloop and how it was for the opposition with Mathieu van der Poel. It's a difficult one, because not many riders, if any, can follow Tadej if he attacks, so you cannot really put your focus on him," the Belgian argues.

"Imagine if you'd been in Omloop and said 'right, when I'm on the Muur I'll follow Mathieu, and then I'll get in the top three at least', but then he did what he did on the Muur and dropped everybody. And the same goes with Tadej".

In Strade Bianche, without hoping for bad luck - which still didn't lead to Pogacar's defeat in 2025, despite a rough crash in the finale - it is simply unlikely that anyone will be able to match Pogacar directly. Even with Tom Pidcock and the highly-rated Paul Seixas at the start; or last year's Giro d'Italia 'mini Strade Bianche' one-two of Wout van Aert and Isaac del Toro present.

What could eventually yield effect is the combined tactics of several teams which can lead to race situations that become chaotic and put the Slovenian under pressure from early on. "So riders or the team at least have to make their own plan. One way round it is to make sure that you are in a break before him and then when he catches you, you can hang on as long as possible and then you maybe will have a good result. But if you base your strategy around Tadej too much, then you'll lose anyway".