Tom Pidcock soars to solo Strade Bianche victory, Madouas and Benoot join in podium

Tom Pidcock had shown great form over the past few weeks, and at Strade Bianche he stringed everything together to take a long-range solo win. Valentin Madouas and Tiesj Benoot concluded the podium.

A tough race, it saw many riders battling to get in the breakaway. Only a reduced few had the legs and the bravery early in the day, a trio went up the road with Alessandro De Marchi (Israel - Premier Tech), Sven Erik Bystrom (Intermarché - Circus - Wanty) and Iván Romeo (Movistar Team). The trio managed to build a gap of over five minutes and hoped to anticipate the moves of the peloton.

In the long sector 7 the race began to be played out with Casper Pedersen launching some attacks, the peloton also splitting due to a crash and a lot of tension in the sector. At Monte Sante Marie shortly after the race broke as expected. Tom Pidcock had incredibly legs and moved solo after a small group moved away from the peloton. After the steep section Alberto Bettiol and Attila Valter were on the case, with a very small favourites group behind.

The Briton caught up with De Marchi and Bystrom still inside the sector with 42 kilometers to go as Pello Bilbao led the group which absorbed the riders that were out ahead, with van der Poel accelerating towards the end of the sector in urgency. Collaboration was not possible there howevr and attacks began. Kron, Bilbao and Gregoire quickly moved away from the group with attacks behind.

The chasing groups united into two larger groups in the flat section ahead of the final decisive sterrato sectors, 25 seconds and 1:25 minutes behind respectively. Following the sector Benoot, Costa and Madouas went clear shortening the gap slightly. Valter, Mohoric and Simmons bridged across shortly after.

Simmons was dropped at the final sector of Le Tolfe as Valter attacked, but Pidcock kept a gap of over 10 seconds out front. The chasing group kept attacking and counter-attacking each other constantly but without reaching the head of the race and effectively keeping the status quo. The gap to Pidcock grew to almost 30 seconds towards the bottom climb with the victory virtually secured.

Pidcock rolled through the finish line to take a brave victory. Valentin Madouas rode to second place as Tiesj Benoot secured the final place of the podium.

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