00:00The expectation levels were extraordinarily high for this, the 19th edition of the Strade
00:15Bianche.
00:16A lot of pressure on everyone's shoulders, plenty of former winners on display, but there
00:21was absolutely no doubt who was the lynchpin.
00:25Teddy Pocaccia, could he be beaten, and indeed what strategy would he impose?
00:30We rolled out with Polte, Visit Malta at the front of the pack, and then stalemate.
00:38Would it be in the battle of attrition that we saw in the women's race?
00:42Kind of.
00:43And the pace was being imposed, of course, by none other than UE Team Emirates.
00:48We had ourselves a breakaway, an impressive one as well, but they weren't panicking behind
00:53Teddy Pocaccia's men, working hard.
00:56But they were not in the break, not represented there, and plenty of other big teams were
01:00in pretty much the same situation.
01:03And so it was that nine riders had pushed up the road, and the gap was being held at
01:08around about one minute.
01:10Tom Pidcock has decided to go himself, and tell you what, whatever Teddy can do, I can
01:16do better.
01:17How's about this?
01:18He was in the mood today, precocious in his interview, and Pidcock says, oh my goodness,
01:23what was that?
01:24I tell you, it was Teddy Pocaccia coming up alongside, he's now got a bike length, Pidcock's
01:27got to struggle to stay with him, everyone else has been devastated.
01:32The last man standing from the breakaway was Swift from Ineos Grenadiers, and so it was
01:36the trio were up front, but Swift himself, would he be able to hold on?
01:41Every time we had Stradivianchi, then he managed to get back to the trio.
01:45They were sharing duties, sharing bottles, and indeed it seemed to be they would be sharing
01:50the podium until this.
01:52There is one, two, all back wheel, back wheel straight out from underneath him, and he's
01:57lucky, very, very lucky to have got away with that.
02:03This allowed Pidcock off the leash, away he went, Pocaccia charging into the gap, Pidcock
02:10had shaken his head quite frankly, and decided that with still over 45 kilometres to go,
02:15the best thing was to actually wait up for the man who was chasing him.
02:19So, if this was going to be our one, two, who would finish on the podium?
02:23Swift was brave, he was digging in, meanwhile Pidcock decided to run for the horizon, with
02:29of course Danny Pocaccia in tow.
02:33Would they, could they possibly make it?
02:35Now of course, out and out leaders by a minute from the chase group, which was Swift, and
02:39indeed a very select band of brothers who were trying to indeed close down.
02:44Wellens, Bilbao, Healy was also in the frame, but how much strength did they have left?
02:49Oh my goodness, the thumbscrews are twisting here, and it's Danny Pocaccia who's in control,
02:55oh look at this, Tom Pidcock is really being stressed out right now, this is a statement
02:59about what's to come, don't forget the Flamm Rouge as well.
03:02Danny Pocaccia was absolutely in a class of his own, away he went, and the gap to Pidcock
03:09just started to swell, and with just under 13km to go, last of the Strade Bianche sections
03:16within his mind, and indeed was dealt with absolutely beautifully.
03:20With the crowds absolutely mobbing the road, wanting to see the gladiators, the one man
03:25had put paid to absolutely everybody out there.
03:29He faced the monster, and indeed faced it down, along with everybody else that was involved
03:34in this race, bloodied but unbowed, the world champion rounded the last few technical curves,
03:40and brought in a famous third victory, equalling the feat of Fabian Cancellara, and so a piece
03:47of Strade Bianche history had been written, and indeed one of the famous sections would
03:51of course be named after him.
03:54Such was his advantage, it was a magnificent performance, especially with all the adversity
04:00that he had faced through the day.
04:05It does not get much better than that, Pocaccia taking ahead of Pidcock, Tim Wellens with
04:18the bronze medal essentially, Ben Healey leading home the rest.
Commenti