Recap: Strade Bianche
Strade Bianche and the Expansion of a Legacy
The white roads of Tuscany rarely repeat themselves.
Yet this year, history did — emphatically.
🇮🇹 Strade Bianche
A Fourth Victory — A First in History
Tadej Pogačar won Strade Bianche for the fourth time, becoming the first rider ever to reach that mark.
🏆 Most Wins — Strade Bianche
4 — 🇸🇮 Tadej Pogačar (2026, 2025, 2024, 2022)
3 — 🇨🇭 Fabian Cancellara (2016, 2012, 2008)
2 — 🇵🇱 Michał Kwiatkowski (2017, 2014)
A race that once seemed perfectly suited to specialists has now found its undisputed master.
Podium Consistency
Pogačar’s dominance extends beyond victories.
His fourth podium finish also sets a new benchmark.
🥇 Most Podiums — Strade Bianche
4 — 🇸🇮 Tadej Pogačar (2026, 2025, 2024, 2022)
3 — 🇪🇸 Alejandro Valverde (2022, 2015, 2014)
3 — 🇧🇪 Wout van Aert (2020, 2019, 2018)
3 — 🇨🇭 Fabian Cancellara (2016, 2012, 2008)
In a race barely two decades old, the hierarchy is already clear.
A Teenage Podium
Behind the winner came one of the most remarkable results of the modern era.
Paul Seixas finished second, becoming the youngest rider ever to reach the podium of a top-level one-day race — whether in the modern WorldTour era or earlier competitions such as the World Cup or Super Prestige Pernod.
👶 Youngest Podium — Top-Level One-Day Races
19-164 — 🇫🇷 Paul Seixas — 2nd, Strade Bianche (2026)
19-190 — 🇧🇪 Remco Evenepoel — 1st, Clásica San Sebastián (2019)
19-197 — 🇮🇹 Giuseppe Saronni — 2nd, La Flèche Wallonne (1977)
19-206 — 🇧🇪 Rik Van Steenbergen — 1st, Tour of Flanders (1944)
19-229 — 🇧🇪 Jos Wouters — 1st, Paris–Tours (1961)
19-234 — 🇮🇹 Olimpio Bizzi — 3rd, Milan–San Remo (1936)
19-262 — 🇫🇷 Jacques Anquetil — 1st, Grand Prix des Nations (1953)
20-052 — 🇫🇷 Jean Maréchal — 2nd, Paris–Roubaix (1930)
20-067 — 🇧🇪 Jos Wouters — 1st, Brussels Classic (1962)
20-072 — 🇧🇪 Albert Jordens — 2nd, Liège–Bastogne–Liège (1922)
Few races allow teenagers into their decisive moments.
Even fewer see them take the podium.
The Strade Specialists
Consistency in Tuscany has long defined Strade Bianche’s true specialists.
With another strong performance, three modern contenders reached five career top-10 finishes.
📊 Most Top-10 Finishes — Strade Bianche
8 — 🇧🇪 Greg Van Avermaet
6 — 🇨🇿 Zdeněk Štybar
6 — 🇨🇭 Fabian Cancellara
5 — 🇬🇧 Tom Pidcock
5 — 🇸🇮 Tadej Pogačar
5 — 🇧🇪 Wout van Aert
5 — 🇧🇪 Tiesj Benoot
5 — 🇪🇸 Alejandro Valverde
Only three riders in the race’s history have managed more top-10 finishes than Pogačar, Pidcock and Van Aert.
Closing Note
Strade Bianche delivered two parallel stories.
One rider confirmed his rule over the white roads.
Another proved that even the sport’s hardest one-day races are no longer off-limits to teenagers.
Legacy expanded at the front.
History arrived from behind.
Addendum — Updates to Friday’s Preview
Since Friday’s preview, the final start lists for both Paris–Nice and Tirreno–Adriatico have been confirmed — and a few historical notes deserve an update.
🇫🇷 Paris–Nice
There will be a rider on the start line with multiple overall podium finishes.
🇵🇱 Michał Kwiatkowski — 3rd (2015) and 2nd (2019)
The former world champion remains one of the few active riders returning to the Race to the Sun with more than one appearance on the final podium.
🇮🇹 Tirreno–Adriatico
The start list also adds another historical angle.
🇨🇴 Nairo Quintana will line up in Italy.
If he wins the race, he could become only the second rider with at least three overall victories, matching the potential milestone also in reach for Primož Roglič.
Quintana already holds another distinction among this year’s participants:
Most overall podium finishes among starters — 3
A reminder that even before the racing begins, the record books are already part of the story.