Tadej Pogacar: "It was a beautiful, incredible victory"

The Team UAE Emirates rider has added Strade Bianche to his already big palmarès today. Tadej Pogacar is continuously building a more illustrious set of wins, and today's was with no doubt amongst the most impressive of his career.

"I attacked in the Sante Marie sector, a part of the route that is usually crucial for the result of the race: no one followed me, so I decided to continue alone and I am happy to have managed to reach the finish line, also because they never gave up and, with the passing of the kilometers, my energies were decreasing," Pogacar said in a post-race interview.

The Slovenian started Strade Bianche as one of the favourites, specially as the startlist was modest in comparison with last year, and the likes of Tom Pidcock and Romain Bardet did not take to the start after stomach issues. Despite having been involved in a mass crash that took out Julian Alaphilippe and many other race favourites, he quickly got back on the bike and seemingly raced with no consequences of that fall.

“It was a beautiful, incredible victory. I started from afar, and I was only sure I made it when there were about 5 kilometers to go, but even on the last climb I checked if anyone was coming behind me," he concluded. Pogacar attacked with 50 kilometers to go on a descent section of Monte Sante Marie and quickly built a gap of a minute using his technical skills and climbing capacity. He has a massive engine, and used it to keep a stable gap all the way to the finish, without ever going through a complicated period that could threaten his win.

This monday he will start at Tirreno-Adriatico where he will be planning to re-capture the overall classification title he obtained last year. He will have competition from the likes of Richard Carapaz, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel.