While Pogacar started his solo around 79 kilometres before the finish, the battle for second place remained exciting at best. There, his team-mate Isaac Del Toro and Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) fought a duel. Only on the final climb up to Piazza del Campo did the Frenchman break away from the Mexican and finish second.

With 203 kilometres to and from Siena, the race was a little shorter; 14 instead of 16 gravel sectors and 64 instead of 80 kilometres of gravel were intended to make Strade a little easier compared to the previous year. The main aim was to reduce Pogacar's dominance a little. But that didn't work. As in the previous year, the 27-year-old once again drove almost 80 kilometres alone before successfully completing his first race of the season. It was the 109th victory of his career.

"I'm over the moon to have taken the win," said Pogacar after the race. "I saw Paul Seixas chasing me hard on the steepest part of the climb when I attacked on Monte Sante Marie. I said to myself: 'Give it everything until the summit, then I'll see if he gets on my back wheel or explodes'. Then I realised that I had enough of a lead. It helped me a lot to ride alone. It's a great start to the season. I'll take the rest of the year race by race and then see if it goes as well as last year."

Strade Bianche 2026 - Results

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How Strade Bianche 2026 went

Unlike in the women's race, a ten-man lead group broke away early on in the race, including Red Bull pro Adrien Boichis and Tibor del Grosso for Alpecin - Premier Tech. The breakaway made it to sector 7, Monte Sante Marie, a good 80 kilometres before the finish. This was the moment for Pogacar and the rest of the UAE team to go on the offensive. The team took the lead - the world champion broke away from the peloton almost without any problems.

Seixas, Del Toro and Matteo Jorgenson initially tried to follow the Slovenian. Seixas did manage to catch Pogacar's rear wheel briefly, but the latter simply added another carbon and was on his own with 79 kilometres to go. Behind them, Seixas and Del Toro found each other again before Thomas Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers), Matteo Jorgenson (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) and Grégoire also caught up again. With 50 kilometres to go, 17 chasers were together.

Only second place remains exciting

Among them, it was Pidcock who repeatedly endeavoured to reduce the group again. He succeeded 36 kilometres before the finish. Christen, Del Toro, Seixas, Grégoire, Gianni Vermeersch (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) and Jorgenson. This septet was one and a half minutes behind the leader, a second chasing group half a minute more.

With 18 kilometres to go, it was Seixas who went on the offensive again. Del Toro was the only one able to follow. The duo broke away and opened up a good 20-second lead before Christen tried to catch up from behind with ten kilometres to go. But the Swiss rider's endeavour failed. He tried again five kilometres before the finish, but failed again.

Meanwhile, it was the 19-year-old Seixas who held off the 20-year-old Del Toro in the final 1000 metres. From the group behind, Gregoire and Vermeersch proved to be the strongest in the final, finishing fourth and fifth respectively.