When he slipped on a descent 50 kilometers from the finish, he scared his fans but then made them rejoice by winning in Piazza del Campo. Tadej Pogacar won his third Strade Bianche, arriving with a 1'24" advantage over Thomas Pidcock from Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team and 2'12" over Tim Wellens, a Belgian and his teammate at UAE Team Emirates – XRG.

THE RACE - In the first kilometers, 10 men broke away from the group: the Lombard Simone Petilli (Intermarché – Wanty), Danish riders Johan Price-Pejtersen (Alpecin – Deceuninck), Albert Withen Philipsen (Lidl – Trek), Anders Foldager (Team Jayco AlUla), British riders Lewis Askey (Groupama – FDJ), Connor Swift (INEOS Grenadiers), Mark Donovan (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) along with Belgian Stan Dewulf (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team), Swiss Fabian Weiss (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) and Dutch rider Pepijn Reinderink (Soudal Quick-Step).

Pedaling by mutual agreement, these escapees animated the competition until about 100 kilometers from the finish, then punctures and fatigue selected the small group, and six remained at the front: Lewis Askey (Groupama - FDJ), Mark Donovan (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team), Pepijn Reinderink (Soudal Quick-Step), Connor Swift (INEOS Grenadiers), Fabian Weiss (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) and Anders Foldager (Team Jayco AlUla), with UAE Emirates controlling the race behind.

The situation changed seventy-seven kilometers from the finish when, in the Monte Sante Marie sector, Pidcock changed pace and Pogacar was not caught unprepared, immediately jumping on his wheel. The Olympic MTB champion and world road champion first caught up with the first part of the escapees and then joined Swift, who was leading solo. Swift deserves applause for not giving up and continuing with the two.

Then Pogacar's crash, who after getting back on the bike, pushed hard on the pedals, caught up with Pidcock and continued in tandem, gaining on Swift and the chasing group with Wellens, Vermeersch, Bilbao, Healy, Valgren, Van Eetvelt, Adrià and Cort.

Twenty kilometers from the finish, the world champion decided to increase the pace, left the Olympic mountain bike champion behind and sped towards victory. Behind him, Thomas Pidcock continued at a good pace, resisting Wellens' chase, who surprisingly broke away from the rest of the chasing group to secure third place.

On the day of Pogacar's latest triumph, the retirements of Ulissi and Scaroni, who crashed during the race, are unfortunately noteworthy.

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FINISH ORDER

POGAČAR Tadej UAE Team Emirates - XRG 05:13:58

2 PIDCOCK Thomas Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team 01:24

3 WELLENS Tim UAE Team Emirates - XRG 02:12

4 HEALY Ben EF Education - EasyPost 03:23

5 BILBAO Pello Bahrain - Victorious 04:20

6 CORT Magnus Uno-X Mobility 04:26

7 VERMEERSCH Gianni Alpecin - Deceuninck 04:29

8 VALGREN Michael EF Education - EasyPost 04:37

9 VAN EETVELT Lennert Lotto 04:47

10 ADRIÀ Roger Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe 05:06

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