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Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) had an emphatic response to Tadej Pogacčar’s (UAE Crew Emirates) 81-kilometre solo assault to win the 2024 version of Strade Bianche: “What the fuck?”
The Ineos Grenadiers rider completed his race within the Piazza del Campo virtually 4 minutes down in fourth place after being a part of a chasing group of “30 lifeless our bodies,” within the Yorkshireman’s phrases.
Pogačar gained his second Strade Bianche after attacking on the Monte Sante Marie climb, a little bit over midway into the race. Pidcock was unable to reply and the Slovenian by no means seemed again for his first win of the season.
“Earlier than already it was full gasoline. He attacked, and it felt like we had been within the gruppetto to be sincere. It was simply lifeless our bodies in every single place,” Pidcock mentioned to Cyclingnews and different media after the end.
Pogačar made his transfer on one of many steepest pitches of the Monte Sante Marie and the group blew aside. The chasers by no means actually shaped a pursuit that was going to problem the two-time Tour de France winner, and now two-time Strade Bianche winner. As a substitute, people resorted to solo assaults for the minor podium placings. Pidcock criticised his personal techniques throughout this era.
“I waited too lengthy. Too little, too late. I feel if I performed it a bit higher, I’d have been second,” he mentioned.
“I used to be simply ready and ready and letting everybody else assault. They had been leaping rather a lot. I left it too late. I used to be good at this time, however I waited too lengthy.”
The 24-year-old had been important of the brand new route, with its further 30 kilometres and 4 new gravel sectors. Though the course was tougher than earlier editions, Pidcock thought that the racing techniques hadn’t modified in depth.
“We had been racing as if it was the outdated parcours. It will have been fantastic, however if you add 40k on and you’ve got 30 lifeless our bodies…
“The outcome would have been the identical if it was the identical distance for me,” he continued.
As Pogačar’s hole ballooned out in direction of the four-minute mark, Pidcock mentioned that the morale within the chase group plummeted.
“Everybody was simply taking a look at one another. Everybody was quiet, you realize, down. It felt like we had been within the gruppetto,” he repeated, “I do not actually know what to say, to be sincere, like simply what the fuck?”
With such a protracted, arduous day within the saddle, and with climate bringing heavy rain because the group hit the Monte Sante Marie, Pidcock commented that consuming the required vitamin was one of many hardest elements of the day.
“I used to be nonstop consuming. I do not really feel like consuming the rest at this time, to be sincere. Whenever you’re already going full gasoline for the primary 80k and also you’re already consuming full gasoline prefer it’s the ultimate, after which it’s important to proceed it to the tip, it is fairly tough.”
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