Pogacar wins Strade Bianche for record fourth time

Four-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar soloed to victory as he won Strade Bianche for a record fourth time. The reigning world champion attacked with 78km of the 204km race to go and cruised to a third straight victory in the Italian one-day classic. Sporting dyed blonde hair for his first race day of 2026, the 27-year-old Slovenian won his opening race of the season for a sixth straight year.

Pogacar crossed the line exactly one minute before 19-year-old French rider Paul Seixas, while Pogacar's UAE Emirates-XRG team-mate Isaac del Toro was third. Earlier, Swiss champion Elise Chabbey won the women's race for the first time following a thrilling finish. Strade Bianche starts and ends in Siena and features uneven gravel on Tuscany's famous white, chalky roads, including the Monte Sante Marie section.

Pogacar made his decisive move there, just as he did two years ago, and when Seixas attacked about 18km from the finish, only Del Toro went with him, refusing to help the young French star chase down his team-mate. Jan Christen finished just ahead of Britain's Tom Pidcock to ensure there were three UAE riders in the top six. "I'm super happy," said Pogacar.

"I was chasing really hard on the steepest part of the climb on Sante Marie. "But I said to myself, 'I will go all out to the top and then see if [Seixas] can bridge or he will make a gap'. In the end I saw that it's enough, and I knew that Isaac and Jan [were there] also, so this helped a lot.