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Pro Log: Strade Bianche, Giro subs Switzerland for the Mortirolo and UCI investigating TT helmets
Welcome back to another edition of Pro Log. It’s been a busy week, dominated by reactions to UAE Team Emirates’s Tadej Pogačar attacking from 81km out and Visma-Lease a Bike’s ugly helmets, which we’ll get onto.
Paris-Nice is underway, with Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) sprinting to victory on the opening stage and Arvid de Kleijn bagging the first win this season for Tudor Pro Cycling on the next day. Brandon McNulty currently leads the GC with his UAE Team Emirates squad’s team time-trial success on Stage 3.
Tirreno-Adriatico has also begun. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) is leading ‘The Race of the Two Seas’ following his time-trial victory ahead of Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) on the first stage. Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Jasper Philipsen won Stage 2 into Follonica ahead of Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep).
At the weekend, Pogačar and Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) won their respective Strade Bianche races in different styles – Pogačar with a huge solo attack and Kopecky by dropping Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) on the final climb. Let’s get into it.
Tadej Pogačar dominates with 81km solo attack
The 215km Strade Bianche marked Tadej Pogačar’s debut for the 2024 season. As expected, he delivered in a dominating fashion that marks so many of the 25-year-old’s victories, attacking solo with no one able to keep up.
Pogačar told reporters before the race that he intended to attack on the Monte Sante Marie gravel section, and that’s exactly what he did. His solo exploits lasted 81km before he arrived into Siena, lifting his bike aloft in celebration as he crossed the line. It echoes his previous win at Strade Bianche in 2022, when he successfully attacked solo from the 50km-to-go mark.
In contrast to previous editions of the race, the 2024 Strade Bianche stretched over 200km for the first time in its history, going from 184km in 2023 to 215km this year. Organisers RCS no doubt wanted the extra mileage to provide another challenge (although it only lengthened the amount of time we waited to see Pogačar eventually crowned) and potentially help boost its status to that of a Monument.
Pogačar will be on the start line for Milan-San Remo on 16th March. It’s one of just two Monuments he is yet to win, but given his abilities, it’s only a matter of time.
World Champion Lotte Kopecky wins Strade Bianche
SD Worx-Protime’s Lotte Kopecky also won Strade Bianche on the weekend, arriving at the finish line solo after dropping Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) on the final climb. It was a definitive win compared to the battle witnessed last year, in which a two-up sprint to the line between Kopecky and teammate Demi Vollering resulted in a photo finish and produced a tense wait to reveal the winner.
Kopecky had time to enjoy the moment after 137km in the saddle, showing off her World Champion bands and raising her arms in the air in celebration, though a phone promptly blocked the view for anyone watching on TV. Longo Borghini finished four seconds behind, with SD Worx-Protime’s Vollering just pushing out Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) for third.
Mortirolo added to Giro d’Italia 2024
Giro d’Italia organiser RCS announced a route change to Stage 15 of the upcoming edition, which originally featured the 18km ascent of Forcola di Livigno. This has now been scratched after Switzerland’s Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Mobility declined to authorise the border crossing due to the costs for ensuring safety.
The peloton will continue to depart from Manerba del Garda on the day, climbing the category 3 Lodrino and category 2 Colle san Zeno. It’s here the route changes. Instead of climbing towards the category 3 Aprica, heading into Switerland for the Forcola di Livigno and finishing the stage back on Italian soil atop the Mottolino in Livigno, the stage stays in Italy, heading up the category 1 climbs of the brutal Passo del Mortirolo and Passo di Foscagno, then climbing up the Mottolino from the Monno side.
The adjusted stage is still the same length at 220km.
New aero helmets for Visma-Lease a Bike
They’ve caused quite the stir recently. Not only in the peloton, with Bora-Hansgrohe sprinter Sam Welsford in the peloton joking, ‘I quit,’ but with fans and ex-pros alike. I placed it bottom of my official ugly TT helmet rankings.
The helmets were seen on the heads of Visma-Lease a Bike riders. First at the Tirreno-Adriatico time-trial, where highest-placed rider Jonas Vingegaard finished 9th, but then during the Paris-Nice time-trial the following day.
After the furore, the UCI released a statement announcing they will carry out an ‘in-depth analysis’ of regulations governing the design and use of time-trial helmets following the introduction of not only the helmet pictured above, but Bahrain-Victorious’ camouflage ones too. The aero headsock used in Specialized’s latest TT helmet has also been banned, although we’re not sure what stops a rider from just wearing a snood.
See you next week.
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