Nat Bromhead
History has repeated with 2022 Strade Bianche winners Lotte Kopecky and Tadej Pogačar nailing the 2023 event.
Two years ago Tadej Pogačar won his first Strade Bianche after a solo 50-kilometre ride, while Lotte Kopecky took the women’s race after outsprinting Annemiek Van Vleuten.
On Saturday Pogačar extended his previous effort by crossing the line after a stunning solo ride of 80 km, while Lotte Kopecky raised her arms to the sky in Piazza del Campo after beating Elisa Longo Borghini in a thrilling side-by-side battle.
With this year’s men’s course longer and tougher, with four gravel sectors and 30 km added to the original route, Tadej attacked at the same point where he did two years ago, on the Monte Sante Marie section, only this time it was 80 km to the finish line and not 50.
Within 10 km the Slovenian had already built a 2-minute gap on a chasing pack featuring champions such as Tom Pidcock, Matej Mohorič, Sepp Kuss and Christophe Laporte, to name but a few.
The move wasn’t exactly a surprise, with Pogačar publicly proclaiming before the start “I will attack on Monte Sante Marie”. Perhaps not everyone listened to him, or perhaps they didn’t believe him, but he definitely kept his word.
Pogačar is clearly in fine as he looks to take on both this year’s Giro d’Italia and Tour de France.
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