Pogacar offers apologies to Pidcock and is brutally honest about himself despite Strade victory: "I was pretty sh*t"

Strade Bianche unfolded perfectly for Tadej Pogacar. The Slovenian didn’t launch a solo attack from 80 kilometers out, but he did enter the final loop with only Tom Pidcock and early breakaway rider Connor Swift still on his wheel. Heading towards the first ascent of Colle Pinzuto, everyone was expecting an acceleration—but instead, Pogacar misjudged a corner on the descent and went tumbling into the ditch. To everyone's surprise, he got up relatively unscathed and, bloodied and torn up, still managed to take the win.

In a short descent before the first climb of Colle Pinzuto—one of Strade Bianche’s key sections—the UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader crashed. He took a corner at high speed, too fast, and his front wheel slid out from under him. After a long skid, he tumbled into the ditch, somersaulting through the bushes. Covered in cuts, scrapes and road rash, the Slovenian quickly got back on his bike.

Pidcock watched the crash, shaking his head. Swift also misjudged the turn due to Pogacar's crash but managed to stay upright. Pogacar, slightly dazed, quickly remounted but had to swap bikes before reaching the base of Pinzuto. On the gravel sector, he swiftly caught Swift, and after about five kilometers, Pidcock decided to wait for his rival, allowing Pogacar to regain contact. By then, Swift was already out of the running.

Continue reading below the footage of Pogacar's crash

Nasty crash or not, "A win is a win' for Pogacar

Despite his crash, Pogacar dropped Pidcock in the final loop and everything ultimately fell into place. In the flash interview after a chaotic day, a relieved world champion stood in front of the camera. "I was enjoying myself—until after the finish," Pogacar said, his face contorted in pain. "Now that the adrenaline is gone, I’m starting to feel a lot of pain. It’s not the best way to win, but a win is a win. Let’s hope it’s nothing worse than it seems, then it’ll be okay."

Pogacar explained exactly what went wrong in that fateful corner. "I think I was going too fast. I know these roads very well. I took the turn like I have twenty times before, but sometimes you misjudge it. I just slid out—sh*t happens," he shrugged, his bloodied shoulders showing his nonchalance. There was a moment of panic, though, as his tumble landed him in thorny bushes. "For a moment, I didn’t know if I was okay."

"My bike wasn’t working, so I had to switch. I was worried because when you crash, it takes a lot out of your body. But I had enough left to finish it off," he continued. For those who only saw the final result—with Pogacar winning by over a minute—it might have seemed like a routine victory. "It was a super-fast race today, with a strong breakaway. Our guys did an amazing job at the front of the peloton. We really put the hammer down."

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Pogacar the jokester, but also hard on himself

After the podium ceremony, Pogacar hobbled into the press conference with his bandaged and bruised left leg, but it was clear he hadn’t lost his sense of humor. When asked how he was feeling, he quipped with a laugh, “I’m good, good question. How are you?” Later, when someone called him lucky for escaping with just road rash after such a brutal crash, he joked again: “I’m a lucky guy—maybe that should be my new nickname?”

But on a more serious note, Pogacar admitted to “panic in my head” after the crash. That he managed to quickly get back on the bike, chase down Pidcock, and then drop him didn’t seem surprising to him. “I had to get back as fast as possible because we put so much work into this as a team, and I wanted to finish it off. I just had to keep going. My original plan was to attack on the first time up Colle Pinzuto, but the crash ruined that. After that, I knew I had to go all-in on the second time up Pinzuto, because Le Tolfe suits Tom, and so does the finish in Siena. I went for it, and it worked.”

Beating Pidcock felt great, but Pogacar still took a moment to sincerely apologize to him. “I told Tom I was sorry because what I did was stupid. It could have ended badly for all three of us in the front group—for Tom, for Connor, and for me. It was my mistake, so I apologized, and he just asked me how I was doing. From there, we moved on.” And did Pidcock wait for him after the crash? “No idea. When I got close, maybe.”

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Pogacar has a lot of respect for strong Pidcock

The collaboration with Pidcock—who attacked on Monte Sante Marie himself—was solid. Pogacar called it "a classy race, with mutual respect." "In the end, he showed respect for me, and I have respect for him. Maybe Tom even pushed me over the limit with that crash, yeah. I had a cyclo-cross world champion and a world and Olympic mountain bike champion on my wheel, so I was under pressure. I had to show him I was strong, but instead, I showed that I was pretty sh*t."

“I’ll never aim for a mountain biking career, that’s for sure,” he joked again. In the end, everything turned out fine, which Pogacar saw as inevitable at some point. "Every cyclist has had a crash like that at some point. It wasn't my first big fall, and it won’t be my last. These things happen, and I'm super happy I was still able to finish it off."

Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email: [email protected])     

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