“Strade is a race where I have some great memories" - Tadej Pogacar returns to Italy to defend Strade Bianche crown

Although he's already dominated at the UAE Tour this year, Tadej Pogacar makes a much-anticipated return to European road racing on March 8th, as he looks for a third Strade Bianche victory in four years.

The impressiveness of the ride from Pogacar at the 2024 Strade Bianche cannot be overstated. His second time winning the Italian classic, the Slovenian left no one in any doubt as to who was the strongest in the field, attacking clear with 81km to go in the opening race of his season and sending an ominous warning for what else was to come in 2024.

“Strade is a race where I have some great memories," he reflects in a press release posted to UAE Team Emirates - XRG's official website. "My track record there is pretty good and I hope to be up at the pointy end of the action again on Saturday. We can expect some strong rivals – the startlist is always on a high level for these big races and it should make things exciting both for us and for the fans."

As mentioned, the world champion has already make a winning start to 2025 too, winning two stages and the general classification of the UAE Tour in his season opener. "It was good to get the season started in UAE, winning made it even better obviously. The team is on a good wave at the moment with many wins already and we’ll hope to continue that over the next races,” Pogacar concludes.

Tadej Pogacar
Filippo Baroncini
Isaac Del Toro
Felix Grossschartner
Domen Novak
Florian Vermeersch
Tim Wellens