He has already left his mark, even though he is still only 27 years old: shortly before the 20th edition of the Strade Bianche race (Saturday, 7 March 2026), the race organisers had a kind of monument erected. The steep section on the gravel road up to Colle Pinzuto now bears the name of Tadej Pogacar. The Slovenian has already won the race three times (2022, 2024 and 2025), sometimes with insanely long solo rides through the hills of Tuscany around the start and finish in Siena. Previously, only Fabian Cancellara had been given the honour of a sector with his own name. Since 2017, the Monte Sante Marie sector has been named after the Swiss rider, who won the race in 2008, 2012 and 2016.
Even though Pogacar has already had a monument erected at the side of the route, he wants to continue writing his success story here. He has chosen the race over the unpaved roads of Tuscany, which they call "strade bianche" (white roads) in Italy, for the start of his season in 2026. The fact that he is travelling without the necessary racing hardness is unlikely to play a role. When "Pogi" competes, he usually wants to win and is in top form. And anyone who has seen the video snippets on the internet of him recently racing up the Poggio climb, the key section of Milan-San Remo, in the slipstream of a scooter on his bike during training need have no worries about his level of fitness. He will also be spared a clash with a particularly stubborn opponent: Mathieu van der Poel is skipping the race this year - although he proved with his victory at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad last weekend that he is also in top form on the road bike after his eighth title as cross world champion. And he was the last rider to beat Pogacar in this race in 2021.
Only Tom Pidcock was able to break the streak
Will there be a way past the world number one on the narrow and, judging by the weather forecast, probably dusty roads this year? The last time he won the epic race, which is actually a journey back in time to the early days of cycling when there were only a few paved roads, was when he was at the start line at the Medici fortress outside the historic centre of Siena. When he was absent in 2023, Tom Pidcock filled the power vacuum - with a solo ride that was a kind of quotation of the great absentee's riding style. Pidcock has shown good form at the start of the season, when the tyres are grinding and the bike is drifting, he is in his element. After all, the 26-year-old Brit is an Olympic champion on the mountain bike and has also been world champion in cyclocross. Last year, he arrived in Siena as the first runner-up to the series winner.
Eyes turn to a teenager
In addition, a teenager is likely to push his way into the circle of favourites. Paul Seixas is already regarded in France as the next winner of the Tour de France. Yet the professional cyclist from Team Decathlon is only 19 years old. But his World Tour debut as a teenager last year was as strong as anything last seen from Remco Evenepoel. At the end of the season, he finished third at the European Championships behind Pogacar and Evenepoel. Now, in the spring, he equalled the Slovenian's record time in a race on a climb, which he had set on the way to his European Championship triumph the previous year. Nevertheless, the highly praised Frenchman is a beacon of hope and probably not yet on a par with the dominator of cycling. What's more, should Pogacar, as has happened in the past, overconfidently slip away in a bend at the Strade Bianche, team-mate Isaac del Toro could step into the breach. The Mexican, who narrowly missed out on overall victory in last year's Giro, has arrived at the top of the world at the age of 22 and last year took the pink jersey on the very Giro stage that led over the Strade Bianche to Siena - as stage runner-up behind stage winner Wout van Aert. Del Toro has the climbing strength that is needed on the more than 3,500 metres of climbing in the 203-kilometre one-day race. He recently proved this as the superior winner of the UAE Tour.
A case for lone fighters
The extended group of favourites includes a handful of strong climbers and aggressive riders who like to prove themselves in man-to-man battles: Irishman Ben Healy (EF Education), Frenchmen Valentin Madouas and Roman Grégoire (both Groupama-FDJ), Slovenian warhorse Matej Mohoric (Bahrain), local hero Alberto Bettiol (Astana), who grew up not far from Siena, and of course the men from the versatile Team Visma-Lease a bike with US rider Matteo Jorgenson and classics specialist Wout van Aert (winner in 2020), although we have yet to see whether he has coped well with the injuries he suffered during the cyclo-cross season and the associated training break. Julian Alaphilippe, winner on the Piazza del Campo in 2019, no longer looked as if he could keep up with the very best in high-class races. But he has recently emphasised once again that his ambition has not diminished over the years. Of the who's who of professional cycling, only two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a bike), for whom one-day races are not his thing, and Remco Evenepoel, who wants to prepare specifically for the Tour de France with Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe with just a few races, are missing from the start list.
The Germans play helper roles
The German starters are only likely to play supporting roles. John Degenkolb, Roubaix winner in 2015, will not be at the start, nor will classics specialist Nils Politt or Lennard Kämna, who has had strong performances in Tuscany in the past. Team Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe is sending two ex-mountain bikers into the race in Emil Herzog and Ben Zwiehoff. However, the newly signed Belgian classics specialist Gianni Vermeersch and the Italian Giulio Pellizzari are more likely to be responsible for the results. German champion Georg Zimmermann (Team Lotto-Intermarché) had to cancel his start at short notice. He is suffering from the consequences of a crash in the Trofeo Laigueglia race. Kim Heiduk (Ineos) and Hannes Wilksch (Tudor) are the only other Germans on the provisional start list.
Andreas Kublik
Editor
