{"id":204833,"date":"2026-03-06T12:16:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T12:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=204833"},"modified":"2026-03-06T12:20:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T12:20:49","slug":"pogacar-favoured-to-win-the-2026-strade-bianche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2026\/03\/06\/pogacar-favoured-to-win-the-2026-strade-bianche\/","title":{"rendered":"Poga\u010dar Favoured to Win Strade Bianche Against Seixas, Pidcock and van Aert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Saturday and Sunday was Opening Weekend of the road racing season, though there had been plenty of racing before. It was, in fact, the opening weekend of the spring Classics season with the Omloop Nieuwsblad, won easily by Mathieu van der Poel, and Sunday\u2019s Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, which was taken by Visma\u2013Lease a Bike\u2019s Matthew Brennan.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The favourite<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The racing was fine, though both victories were a little too easy because the winners faced relatively weak opposition. Things get more serious this Saturday with the Strade Bianche, which will be the venue for the long-awaited debut of the best rider in the world, Tadej Poga\u010dar (UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG), who has won the race three times (2022, 2024, 2025). To say that he is the overwhelming favourite is like declaring that the sun will rise tomorrow.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s obviously coming into the race in top form. Cyclingnews reported<\/a> that on March 3, he was on the Cipressa climb (5.58 km @ 4.2%) of the Milan\u2013San Remo, a Monument he has not yet won, and broke the Strava record \u2013 his<\/em> record \u2013 \u00a0for the ascent. He set the record last year, when he tried to break away from all his rivals in the race, but could not shake Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers) and van der Poel, who outkicked him in a sprint.<\/p>\n

\u201cStrade is a race where I have unforgettable memories,\u201d he was quoted as saying on his team\u2019s website<\/a>. \u201cMy record there is pretty good, and I hope that I will be in a good position again come Saturday. We expect there to be some strong rivals, the startlist is always at a high level for these big races, and it should make things exciting for the fans. It is my first race of the season, and I hope to have a good start. I\u2019ve been cheering on from the couch until now, so I\u2019m excited to get stuck in myself again and finally race.\u201d<\/p>\n

A teenage rival<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Stuck in? Right. There are some terrific riders in the race, but I don\u2019t think any of them will beat the self-confessed couch potato. His most interesting rival is 19-year-old Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), who tore apart last Sunday\u2019s Faun-Ard\u00e8che Classic in true Poga\u010dar style, with a long solo and a winning margin of nearly 2 minutes.<\/p>\n

I do think that Seixas will eventually beat Poga\u010dar, but not on Saturday and probably not this year. Seixas has done exceedingly well so far this year, beating Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) and Poga\u010dar\u2019s teammate Jo\u00e3o Almeida on the category 1 Alto da Foia summit finish (8.8 km @ 6.2%) on stage 2 of the Volta ao Algarve and finishing second to Ayuso by only 14 seconds in the GC (but 45 seconds ahead of Almeida) \u2013 and then winning the Faun-Ard\u00e8che in imperious style. But the rider who came in second in that race was Jan Christen, who will be riding in support of Poga\u010dar in the Strade Bianche, and then Seixas is only 19 and still growing into the superstar he will surely be.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by INEOS Grenadiers (@ineosgrenadiers)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n