The Slovenian Tadej Pogacar starts the season at Strade Bianche on Saturday. The classics are on his program again. He can become the record winner of the Tour of France. There he is supported for the first time by Isaac del Toro, his potential successor.
The 20th edition of the gravel road classic Strade Bianche takes place this Saturday over 14 rocky sectors around Siena, which together make up a length of 64 kilometers. The race is demanding, the white, dusty roads have enormous gradients, especially the final kilometers are selective when it goes up to the Piazza del Campo in the center of Siena. All of these ingredients elevate the Tuscan test to the status of the latest classic on the cycling calendar. The defending champion Tadej Pogacar, who has won the race three times like the Swiss Fabio Cancellara, is not only the top favorite again. He was also particularly honored by the organizers.
At the entrance to section 13, the four-star sector Colle Pinzutto, 2.4 kilometers long, a Pogacar memorial stone now stands guard and welcomes cyclists turning in. He is standing in exactly the same place where Pogacar (27) left Briton Tom Pidcock, his last escapee friend, a year ago. In 2024, Pogacar amazed again with an 80-kilometer solo in the spring sun of Tuscany. This race also suits the Slovenian cycling phenomenon. If he wins on Saturday, which is more likely than not, he will hold the winning record.
Pogacar on the final climb of the Strade Bianche 2025
Lots of praise from Pogacar for del Toro
In July he can also join the elite circle of five-time Tour de France winners including Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. Everything is ready for this, a top team is once again at his disposal, which will include Isaac del Toro for the first time alongside Nils Politt from Cologne. The Mexican, 22 years old since November, is already considered the new Pogacar. He has already won 24 races in his career. In the fall of 2024, he achieved a highly acclaimed series of nine victories in 15 races, where he was Pogacar’s noble helper once, in the difficult Tour of Lombardy, and finished fifth himself.
Pogacar at the award ceremony after his 4th Tour victory
Pogacar came out as a big Del Toro fan at his UAE team’s training camp last December: “Maybe he’s even better than me. He goes his own way, he has his own style. I already admire him as a driver and as a person.” That is high praise, but del Toro will not pose a threat to him at least in 2026 for team reasons.
Longing for Sanremo and Roubaix
Pogacar himself has imposed a bit of moderation on himself. This time his start to the season is very late for his standards. In 2025 he competed in the UAE Tour before the Strade Bianche, which he also won. But his hunger to win is still enormous. Pogacar announced that he wanted to have all major races on his list of victories before retiring. That’s why he’s particularly interested in La Primavera, the spring trip from Milan to Sanremo on March 21st (this time starting in Pavia). He still has no success there. This also applies to Paris-Roubaix, his great passion. The race takes place on April 12th.
A week beforehand, Pogacar wants to present himself at Belgium’s biggest cycling festival, the Tour of Flanders, where he is the defending champion. In the triple of Sanremo, Flanders and Roubaix he will meet his big classic opponent Mathieu van der Poel, who won 2-1 against Pogacar in this comparison last year.
Pogacar wants to pay attention to his energy
Pogacar is skipping the Giro d’Italia this year for his classics campaign, unlike his potentially biggest tour opponent Jonas Vingegaard. Overall, Pogacar says he’s trying to pay more attention to himself and his energy. He visibly ran out of energy in the third week of the 2025 Tour. This may have had health reasons – Pogacar was clearly suffering from a cold. But the wear and tear factor may also have played a role in making him susceptible to an infection in the first place.
I know when I need to rest. I won’t overdo it.
Pogacar emphasizes that he “a really good program” get: “I don’t do as many races as other riders. I’ll be in the saddle for 16 days before the Tour. That’s moderate, I think. I’m lucky that I can choose my races.” However, he primarily chooses those that he can win. Pogacar also said that he knew “What appointments I have. I can adapt to them. And above all, I know when I need to rest. I won’t overdo it.”
60 racing days in 2025 and 20 victories – that is phenomenal
On the other hand, after a total of around 60 days of racing last year, he had the impression “that was a lot”. But there was also a high return: “I also won a lot” – 20 races, an incredibly high number for a classified driver. Pogacar is also a classic hunter and, with his dynamism and his manic desire to win, is very reminiscent of Eddy Merckx, the insatiable man who was nicknamed “Cannibal” because he left nothing for the others except a few crumbs. “All in all, I think I have found a good balance with the team, a program that is very good for me and that has worked well for several years”says Pogacar.
What’s special about Pogacar isn’t just his reliability to win in spring or summer. He wins afterwards too. He is keeping an open mind about starting on the Tour of Spain in late summer; it is not planned, but he is always in a position to “to overturn everything in a second. I can’t guarantee anything. Everything is open until the start list is finalized.”
Record hunt in Lombardy
Last year, Pogacar became world champion in Rwanda and won the Tour of Lombardy for the fifth time in a row in October. Pogacar now shares the record of five triumphs with Fausto Coppi. But even Italy’s highly revered cycling Campione failed to win five times in a row in Bergamo. This fall, shortly after his 28th birthday, Pogacar could conquer another record.
As so often, Pogacar won the Tour of Lombardy in 2025 as a soloist.
Ultimately, 28 is not an age for a professional cyclist, at most it is the beginning of the autumn of his career. Pogacar himself doesn’t know exactly where this will all end. In any case, he doesn’t lack motivation. During the training camp, his teammates were once again amazed at their captain’s enthusiasm: he was the first to leave in the morning. And he was the last to return to the hotel from the exit.
