Pablo from the street
Updated Saturday, March 2, 2024-16:41
Imperial, majestic, colossal, sublime.
Superlative epithets are exhausted to describe another brutal feat by a cyclist from another dimension.
Tadej Pogacar
is a delight.
A priceless lover of the show.
This Saturday he won the Strade Bianche, the most attractive modern classic, with its 15
sterrato
sections , with an attack with 80 kilometers to go.
It was his first race of the season.
Amazing.
Once again appealing to the epic, to the exploits of another time.
The most qualified heir of
Eddy Merckx
, he has already told it so many times.
This Saturday he chained his second consecutive edition of the Strade Bianche and, as he did so many times, won by a landslide.
A monologue for the anthology, as he already sealed in the Tour, in
Flanders
, in Lombardy, in Tirreno, in Paris-Nice... The territories to conquer are running out for this 25-year-old Slovenian who already has 64 victories.
A new exhibition that Pogacar himself predicted at the exit of Fortezza Medicea from medieval Siena.
''I feel fine, I'm going to attack on Monte Santa Maria.''
He said it and did it without any qualms.
On the climb of the ninth dirt section, when the rain was getting heavier, he left the company of the peloton and left alone to face an endless stretch ahead: 80 kilometers through muddy areas
, ups and downs on winding
roads in captivating Tuscany.
The distance grew until it reached more than three minutes.
Everyone surrendered to the superiority of the UAE leader, the only interest behind was knowing who would occupy the other two positions on the podium.
Euphoria unleashed by a crazy crowd that cheered the Slovenian hero on every climb.
Total spectacle on dirt and asphalt, in that beautiful stretch of the climb to the Piazza del Campo in medieval Siena, with those 16% ramps on the cobbled slopes of Via Santa Caterina and Rinaldini Avenue.
And the test organized by RCS Sport, the first of the Word Tour season, has everything to seduce the public, with incomparable landscapes, 15 stretches of packed dirt, asphalt, hills full of traps, stone areas at the entrance of Siena.
Impossible to fall into monotony.
In addition to a choreography that is a delight for the senses, this Saturday the test featured actors who sublimated the great test.
Pogacar dominated against rivals with pedigree, such as
Tom Pidcock,
winner of the last edition
, Maxim Van Gils, Tom Skujins, Christopher Laporte, Richard Carapaz, Lenny Martínez, Julian Alaphilippe or Quinn Simmons
. Second place went to the Latvian Skujins and third for the Belgian Van Gils.
The monuments
A new triumph for pogacar that revalues the Italian classic in its coming of age.
In its 18th edition, Strade Bianche took the leap in quality to oppose its entry into the list of Monuments, where Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders,
Paris-Roubaix
, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Giro de Lombardia are located.
The purists allege that it should not appear on that list because the route never exceeded 200 kilometers, a condition fulfilled this Saturday by the Siena classic with its 215 kilometers.
Glory to the Strada Bianche and to a Pogacar that does not lose good habits, dominating since the beginning of the season.
And this year his planning has changed to debut in the
Giro d'Italia
before facing the Tour de France.
In this course he will concentrate the main workloads in March, with the
Milan-San Remo
(16th) and the Volta a Catalunya (18th).
In April he will only compete in Liège-Bastogne-Liège (21).
Pogacar will only coincide with
Jonas Vingegaard
in the Tour, since the Dane plans to face the Tirreno-Adriatico (March 4), the Basque Country (April 1) and the Criterium Dauphiné (June 2).
The path of the double winner of the Tour de France is similar to that of
Primoz Roglic
, who debuts this Sunday in Paris-Nice and who will then go to the Basque Country and the Dauphiné.
Sepp Kuss
will face Volta, País Vasco and Dauphiné.
The preparation of the Spanish candidates for the top 10 of the Tour de France will also be concentrated in March and April.
Juan Ayuso
will race Tirreno-Adriatico, Amstel Gold Race (April 14) and Flecha Wallona (April 17).
Enric Mas
will lean towards Tirreno-Adriatico, Volta, Tour de Romandie (April 23).
Carlos Rodríguez
will go to Paris-Nice.
Pello Bilbao
, like Paris-Nice and the Basque Country.