Win Strade Bianche three times and you earn more than just a place on the roll of honour. You get a monument – a stone marker – and a gravel sector named after you. Last year, Tadej Pogačar completed his hat-trick, and as promised, from this season onward he will have “his” own stretch of sterrato. He becomes only the second rider to receive the honour, following Fabian Cancellara, winner in 2008, 2012 and 2016.
While Cancellara was immortalised on Monte Sante Marie, Pogačar’s stone will stand on Colle Pinzuto – historically one of the decisive points of the race and, in recent years, tackled twice in the same edition. A fitting theatre for a rider who has turned this race into personal terrain.
In 2022 and 2024, the Slovenian claimed victory with long-range solo moves on Monte Sante Marie, riding clear and keeping all challengers at arm’s length. Last year he tried to script the same story, but this time Tom Pidcock was quick to respond. Then fate intervened. A slide on the exit of the Monteaperti sector left Pogačar battered and bloodied. For a few minutes, it looked as though the race might slip away. But he remounted, dusty and torn, and once again proved he was simply the strongest rider in the field. Within a handful of pedal strokes he was back on Pidcock’s wheel. On the rise toward Colle Pinzuto, he made his move, distancing the Brit and launching his third triumphant solo ride toward Piazza del Campo.
Among his 20 victories in 2025, the Strade Bianche success was likely the hardest-earned. It required not only watts, but grit and blood. The crash could have derailed his season; instead, it became another chapter in his legend. Pogačar has already set his sights on 2026, chasing a fourth title – a feat not even Cancellara managed.
