Strade Bianche may have become one of the most popular events on the cycling calendar but Patrick Lefevere believes it has gone too far, criticising the organisers for ‘messing up’ the race.
The route for the 2026 Strade Bianche has seen a slight reduction in the overall distance and the number of gravel sectors, but that’s “too little, too late” for the former Soudal-QuickStep team manager.
“Everyone who organises a race wants the top riders at the start. Only Strade apparently doesn’t need them. The balance of that race was so good; if you made a Venn diagram of all the cobbled races and hill-climbing Classics, Strade would be a perfect cross-section. A race where [Mathieu] Van der Poel and [Tadej] Pogačar competed on equal footing – every organizer’s dream.
Van der Poel and Pogačar did battle in a memorable 2021 edition, which the Dutchman won ahead of Ardennes specialist Julian Alaphilippe and former Tour de France champion Egan Bernal.
Pogačar was seventh that year but returned in 2022 to win with a long-range solo, and has repeated the feat every time he has turned up since, winning in 2023 and 2025 with apparent ease.
Even with some distance and some early gravel sectors scrubbed off compared to the past three editions, Pogačar remains the overwhelming favourite for Saturday’s race, while Van der Poel has not bothered to turn up for a third year in a row.
“If the Classics riders don’t have a chance to win,…
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