Race thread: 🇮🇹 Strade Bianche 2026, Mar 7

https://sh.itjust.works/post/56268848

Should be a good race. Hopefully somebody can put up a fight against Pog and it’s not just a 60 km solo win. Weather looks good if I’m looking at the right forecast.

Side note, I was super confused by that jersey graphic and why Visma, UAE, and others were listed as ProTour. Then I saw the slight shading. Still confusing. Thought I had missed some UCI drama or something and we didn’t have 18 WorldTour teams anymore.

Hopefully somebody can put up a fight against Pog and it’s not just a 60 km solo win. Weather looks

It wasn’t just a 60 km solo win, it was more like a 80 km solo win. 😆

A few notes of mine:

  • After Pogatchar🇸🇮’s attack, Seixas🇫🇷 should have given up the chase as soon as Del Toro🇲🇽 caught up with him, and go back with Grégoire🇫🇷, Jorgenson🇺🇸, etc. which was going well just a few seconds behind. Instead, he pulled for the whole sector (which was still almost 10 km long) and more. When they finally regrouped, they had burned their energy
  • As chasing groups were regrouping, they were getting slower and slower.
  • Each attack from the regrouped chasing group was reducing the gap by 15 seconds as quickly as in a few hundreds metres.
  • The TV direction is atrocious: there were 2 things to show in the final climb, the Seixas🇫🇷/Del Toro🇲🇽 duo and the Pidcock🇬🇧 group. We didn’t see a bloody single inch of any of them! 🤬
  • Seixas🇫🇷 would have been second best today, even if Del Toro🇲🇽 had beaten him in the end (or before the end).
  • Grégoire🇫🇷 was surprisingly good today. Even if he won in Drôme, he benefited on that day of the help of everyone’s best comrade, Jorgenson🇺🇸, and of favourable circumstances behind, otherwise he wasn’t great. Today, he was always at the front (or just behind it), he was consistently good, he didn’t just show up in the end.
  • UAE teammates Del Toro🇲🇽 and Christen🇨🇭 played and used their role perfectly.

Sex-ass had an incredible day. Excited to watch him sell develop as a racer in the coming years.

Too bad the win and winning method was predictable.