Tadej Pogacar details crazy Strade Bianche crash: "I actually showed I'm pretty shit. I'll never do a mountain bike race"

Tadej Pogacar took a third triumph at Strade Bianche and added his name to the history books as the record holder together with Fabian Cancellara. However the path towards success was not as easy as he had hoped, and included a pretty unexpected crash that risked ending his spring campaign.  

The World Champion made the difference at Monte Sante Marie once again like last year, but this time around he was followed by a brilliant Tom Pidcock. This meant he had to measure himself and ride within a certain pace, however in the midst of the duo's attack he took it too fast in a descent with around 50 kilometers to the finish and crashed with some speed.

"I thought of attacking the first time up Colle Pinzuto but the crash stopped that. I knew I had to try on the climb the second time because the rest of the route was perhaps more suited to Tom and it was risky to wait for the climb to Siena. I gave it a go and it was enough," Pogacar said in words to Cyclingnews.   

Pogacar went down in a downhill left corner and slid through the road and into the bushes. He came out with some blood on his left side of the body, damaged equipment and a bike that wasn't fit to be ridden to the finish. But he did not suffer fractures or injuries that took from his performance.

"I guess I'm a lucky guy, it's my new nickname. This is not the first time I've crashed like this and probably not the last. It happens. I'm just super happy I could finish it off," he sighed of relief. "Strade Bianche is one of my favourite races. It would have been a shame if I didn't finish it off." Not only that, but with Milano-Sanremo, Tour of Flanders (and potentially Paris-Roubaix) in his schedule, it could've been a complete disaster.

"It was a moment of panic in my head when I crashed. I was thinking about everything - if I can stand up, if my bike is OK, if my watch is OK, if my back was going to be OK... There was a lot of stuff going on. I was lucky that nothing was broken or that I was seriously injured, it could have ended badly. But I also wanted to get back to the front and try to finish it off because we put in a lot of work as a team. I had to continue."

He quickly recovered position at the head of the race together with Tom Pidcock, and gathered himself before once again attacking towards victory. "I said sorry to Tom and [Connor] Swifty because it was a stupid crash, it could have ended really bad for everyone in the front group. It was my fault," he admits. "Tom waited for me on the top when I was close, maybe he thought it was better to ride together. He respected me and I respect him. It was a classy race today and there was a lot of respect even in this kind of hectic race."

He was able to joke about the fall even, in a good mood: "He's a mountain bike world champion, an Olympic champion and cyclocross world champion, so I was under pressure to show that I'm good. I actually showed I'm pretty shit. I'll never do a mountain bike race, it's not for me."