On March 7, Campo square was crowded with fans for the first time since 2019, who are looking forward to the arrival of this year's white road championship. Eventually a driver appeared in their sights: Tadej Poga ar from the UAE Team Emirates, who attacked in the second half of the white road section of Mount St. Mary, 50 kilometres from the finish line, and after dumping everyone, he rode to victory, Alejandro Valverde and Kasper Asgreen) finished second and third, respectively.
▲ After the game, the runner-up Valverde congratulated Pogacha on winning the championship
Strade Bianche is a distinctive road cycling event in Tuscany, central Italy. "Strade Bianch" (Italian for "white road") is named after the iconic white gravel road in the race, which features more than 50 km of gravel roads throughout the race. In recent years, the white road race has become more and more popular, and even has the saying of "the sixth classical race" in the folk.
▲The characteristic of the white road race, a large amount of sand and dust is raised during the ride
In this battle, Pogacha won the 34th victory of his career, the winner of the White Road Race was won by the Tour de France for the first time, and at the age of 23, he became the second youngest White Road Champion in history.
Pogacha was told in a post-race interview that he was the first driver to launch an attack of more than 20 kilometers in the race and win alone, to which he responded: "Sooner or later there will always be someone to do this first, right? The winner may be decided when there are 50 km remaining, or it may appear when there are 10 km remaining, or through the final sprint to compete for the championship, the field is changing rapidly, you never know what will happen in the next moment. "
▲ Bogacha in a strong solo flight
Bogacha was caught in a crosswind-induced crash 100 kilometres from the finish line, and Julian Alaphilippe was directly knocked off, causing Pogacha to suffer some skin trauma – his left arm was bleeding and his cycling suit was broken, but The bougacha in his prime seemed to be completely unaffected.
▲ Bogacha experienced a bruise on his arm after the crash, and his riding suit was stained with a lot of dirt
The crash led directly to Michael Matthews, 2018 White Road Champion Tiesj Benoot, Matej Mohori, Michael Mohori and Michael S. Thompson. The retirement of drivers such as Michael Gogl and Victor Campenaerts.
▲ The driver who dropped the car and retired from the race rested on the side of the road
Arafilippo (the briskman) attacked with 50 km remaining, and Pogacha, along with Simon Clarke and Quinn Simmons, responded positively to his attack. Then Bogacha exerted his strength, maintaining a power output of more than 500W all the way to pull away others, slowed down after forming a second difference of about 1 minute, and began to fly alone.
At one point in the following schedule, he also widened the second difference to 1 minute and 30 seconds. His lead seems to be stable, but he feels differently in the middle of the game.
▲ Bogacha flew alone across the finish line
'I attacked very early but it wasn't until 5km from the finish line that I thought I was on track to win the title, and even on the final steep slope, I kept looking back from time to time to see if there was a driver behind me and I was happy to have won.'
"It wasn't until the last slope before the finish that I was sure I was safe, and before that I was quite nervous and kept watching if anyone showed up in the rear. At the end of the day, my strength was close to exhaustion, but fortunately I laughed to the end. "
▲ Pogacha lay on the ground after the game, and seemed to be physically exhausted
When Pogacha attacked after the last 50 kilometers, it seemed that no one was doomed to stop him. Even in the last dozen kilometers, Asgrin and Valverde took turns to break the wind, and there was still no obvious shortening of the second difference.
"When it comes to attacking, I have to give it my all. Generally speaking, there is a key point in the race, I was going to fight with all my strength in the final Santa Marie climb, but unexpectedly, no one appeared behind me until the last moment, and I am glad that I did. "
Edit: Johnny
Image source: White Road Race official media