"Once Tadej Pogacar gets over a minute you know you're not going to bring him back" - Toms Skujins 'best of the rest' behind Pogacar at Strade Bianche 2024

Toms Skujins has continued his impressive start to the 2024 Classics season by finishing 'best of the rest' behind the incredible Tadej Pogacar at Strade Bianche.

"He's definitely a step above in any race he does pretty much," the Lidl-Trek star laughs in a post-race interview with Cycling Pro Net, after edging Maxim van Gils in the battle for second place, nearly three minutes after Pogacar had crossed the line. "Just being on the podium is something to be happy about."

With Pogacar making his race-winning attack some 81km out from the line, even then it seemed as if the rest of the race was going to be left to battle for second. "Once Tadej gets over a minute you know you're not going to bring him back so people started racing for second and third," Skujins admits. "Of course then, the collaboration is not good. I knew if I could get a gap I'd have a good chance of getting away from the group because they would just keep doing start-stop racing."

Get away Skujins did alongside Lotto Dstny's van Gils and in the battle for second it was the Latvian who took it. "We all know that when these kind of guys (Pogacar ed.) show up, they can go long. And they keep on going longer."