'WTF? It felt like we were in the gruppetto' - Tom Pidcock stunned by Pogacar's Strade Bianche attack
Ineos Grenadiers leader says he was going well on hi✱s way to fourth, but Pogacar was t𝔍oo good

168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tom Pidcock (168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Ineos Grenadiers) had an emphatic response to 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tadej Pogacčar's (168澳洲5最新开奖结果:UAE Team Emirates) 81-kilometre solo attack to win the 2024 edition of 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Strade Bianche: "What the fuck?"
The Ineos Grenadiers rider finished his race in the Piazza del Campo almost four minutes down in fourth place after being part of a chasing group of "30 dead bodies," iജn the Yorkshireman's words.
Pogačar won his second Strade Bianche after attacking on the Monte Sante Marie climb, a little over halfway into the race. Pidcock was unable to respond and the Slovenian never looked back for his first win of the season.
"Before already it was full gas. He attacked, and it felt like we were in the gruppetto to be honest. It was just dead bodies everywhere," Pidcock said to Cyclingnews and other media after the finish.
Pogačar made his move on one of the steepest pitches of the Monte Sante Marie and the group blew apart. The chasers never really formed a pursuit that was going to challenge the two-time Tour de France winner, and now two-time Strade Bianche winner. Instead, individuals resorted to solo attacks for the minor podium placings. Pidcock criticised his own tactics during this period.
"I waited too long. Too little, toꦇo lat🍌e. I think if I played it a bit better, I would have been second," he said.
"I was just waiting and waiting and letti👍ng everyone else attack. They were jumping a lot. I left it too late. I was good today, but I waited too long."
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The 24-year-old had been 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:critical of the new route, with itsℱ extra 30 kilometres and four new gravel sectors. Although the course was more difficult than previous editions, Pidcock thought that the racing tactics ha꧑dn't changed in intensity.
"We were racing as if it was ♑the old parcours. It would have been fine, but when you add 40k on and you have ℱ30 dead bodies...
"The💖 result would have been the same if it wa𓆉s the same distance for me," he continued.
As Pogačar's gap ballooned out towards the four-minute mark, Pidcock said that the morale in the chase group plummeted.
"Everyone was just looking at each other. Everyone was quiet, you ꦰknow, down. It felt like we were in the gruppetto," he repeated, "I don't really know what to say, to be honest, like just what the fuck?"
With such a long, arduous day in the saddle, and with weather bringing heavy rain as the group hit the Monte Sante M🐲arie, Pidcock commented that consuming the required nutrition was one of the hardest parts of the day.
"I was nonstop eating. I don't feel like 🔯eating anything else today, to be honest. When you're already going full gas for the first 80k and you're already eating full gas like it's the final, and then you have to continue it to the end, it's pretty rough."
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Dan is a freelance cycling journalist and has written for Cyclingnews since 2023 alongside other work with Cycling Weekly, Rouleur and The Herald Scotland. Dan focuses much of▨ his work on professional cycling beyond its traditional European heartlands and writes 🎀a regular Substack called .