Tadej Pogacar and Lotte Lopecky reigned supreme in the 2024 Strade Bianchi, with Pogacar claiming his second title, while Kopecky was the third reigning World Champion to win the women’s race.
Strade Bianche Men Elite Crédit Agricole
Like Bernard Hinault in the 1980 Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Tadej Pogacar claimed his second Strade Bianche Crédit Agricole triumph at the end of a solo 80-km breakaway. Winning the first race he took part in for the fifth consecutive year, he reached the finishing line in Siena with an advantage of 2’44 over Latvia’s Toms Skujins who was followed by Belgium’s Maxim Van Gils. The 18th edition of Strade Bianche was attended by an enormous number of cycling fans, as Pogacar underlined in his post-race comments. The 25 year-old Slovenian already has five Monuments under his belt (Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Tour of Flanders and Il Lombardia three times). His next race will be Milano-Sanremo on March 16.
The winner of the 18th Strade Bianche, Tadej Pogačar, said in the press conference: “It was not the plan to attack from so far out but I found myself in a harder situation than expected. There was a storm with hails, the weather was horrible and not many riders were left at Sante Marie. I knew it would be hard to get away solo later, as the following climbs didn’t suit me so well. I decided to push. Nobody came from behind, I had two team-mates, Tim Wellens and Isaac Del Toro in the chasing group in case I’d run out of gas. I can’t say it’s my most beautiful victory because I’m so dirty at the end… But the atmosphere on the road was incredible. I have not seen so many people at a race in Italy before. I love Italy, not only for the good pasta and pizza. I’ve raced here all of my life and this win boosts my confidence for the Giro. I hope I have a good Italian year ahead of me, starting with Milano-Sanremo in two weeks. I got confirmation today that the consequences of my crash last year are behind me. I’m not the one to decide if I’ve made Strade Bianche the next Monument on the calendar, it’s definitely one of the most popular races at the moment. It’s one of the biggest in the world”.
Toms Skujins, second, said: “It’s not a win but second to Tadej Pogacar is quite good. If someone had said I’d come second today I would not have believed but finishing on the podium is something I’ve been thinking of for a long time so I’m really happy. This is definitely a very special race with the finish here in Siena, with the people, the crowd, the noise… there’s no race that comes close to Strade Bianche. My legs were screaming but with the people on the road helped today. It kind of blocked the pain”.
Maxim Van Gils, third placed, said: “It’s not a win but being on the podium of Strade Bianche is nice. The goal was to do top 5. Third is even better. My tactic was to follow Tadej [Pogacar] but he went too fast so I had to wait to make a gap on the other guys. I went solo then Toms Skujins joined me and we went together. I already started the season very well and I hope to do more in the classics. I’ll definitely come back to Strade Bianche, it’s one of my favourite races but I’ll have a bigger chance to win it if Tadej doesn’t start one year”.
Final Results:
1 – Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) – 215 km in 5h19’45” av. speed 40.344 km/h
2 – Toms Skujins (Lidl – Trek) at 2’44”
3 – Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny) at 2’47”
Strade Bianche Women Elite Crédit Agricole
Lotte Kopecky became the third reigning champion to win Strade Bianche Elite Women after Lizzie Deignan in 2016 and Annemiek van Vleuten in 2024, making it a four-year routine. She rode away from the group of the favourites along with Elisa Longo Borghini with 12km to go. She forced the Italian champion to do most of the work and attacked her in the last hill of via Santa Caterina with 500 metres to go to win the race in style just one year after her team-mate Demi Vollering, third this time, pipped her on the line, depriving her of the hat trick.
Kopecky, the winner of the Strade Bianche Women Elite Crédit Agricole, said in the press conference: “Strade Bianche is very special for me. To win it two years ago against Annemiek van Vleuten opened a lot of doors and boosted my confidence. To win here again two years later with the rainbow jersey is like a dream. We delivered a pretty good team performance. We tried to be more in the race and sharper than last week, everyone in the team did a good job and once Demi [Vollering] and I were ahead in a group of five, it was an ideal situation for us. At half way, I didn’t think I’d win, my rhythm wasn’t good, but I felt that before so I know that even without the best legs but it doesn’t get any worse. When I made an effort on Tolfe, I felt no damage then I thought my legs were painful but it was the same for everyone. I started to think about winning again. The second time on Tolfe, I was more confident. After this, my main goal of the year will be the Olympic road race”.
Elisa Longo Borghini declared: “The quality of today’s race is incredible. The level was very high. We played our cards the best we could and we end up with the second place. We can be satisfied. Second to the world champion is not bad, we worked to beat her and I have honoured the tricolour jersey [of Italian champion] in my favourite race but somehow we have to work it out how to beat her in the next races. We always try to go for the win and anything could have happened until we crossed the line. It was a big fight with Lotte [Kopecky] and again she won the race, that’s cycling. I’m happy about how we fought today”.
Demi Vollering said: “It’s been a very nice race again, a hard race, totally different from previous year. It was hard but not super hard. There was still a fairly big group and it took time before the real final started. It was a three gravel sections fireworks and everybody was scared of what was coming. With Lotte [Kopecky] at the front, I didn’t have any pressure any more. I knew Lotte could finish it off”.
Final Results:
1 – Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx) 137 km in 3h55’43” average speed 34.872 km/h
2 – Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl – Trek) at 4″
3 – Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx) at 26″
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