This year’s Strade Bianche route saw an additional 30 kilometres of racing and even more gravel roads, plus mixed with the ever changing weather conditions, it will go down as one of the hardest editions of the race to date. The team were attentive from the start and tried to cover any dangerous moves but it was clear that it was going to be a hard and fast day in the saddle, with the race already exploding from distance. At just inside 100 kilometres to go there was only around 40 riders left in the bunch with Romain Bardet, Kevin Vermaerke and Warren Barguil all present for the team, the former of whom had to chase back hard after a mechanical. The high pace continued before Pogacar launched his race winning move at 80 kilometres remaining. Behind it became a brutal race of attrition with Bardet the last rider present for the team in the chasing “peloton”, eventually finishing just outside the top 15 on the day.
Bardet expressed: “It was a tough race but also one I think we were a bit unlucky. I felt really good on the bike but at around 120 kilometres to go I dropped my derailleur and had to chase for a while to come back to the front, just as things started to explode. I could bridge to the group which was fighting for second place, but in the last 20 kilometres I realised that I had a slow front puncture and lost contact with the group on a downhill. From there I tried to finish as well as I could. I still enjoyed racing the Strade Bianche and hopefully I can bring these good legs into the next week at Tirreno-Adriatico.”