This page contains the podium, decisive moments, tactical analysis, team verdicts, and per-rider performance reports. Read no further if you intend to watch this race unspoiled.
Pogačar solo over the final gravel sectors to take a third Strade Bianche, this time with the spring's storyline-of-the-year — 19-year-old Paul Seixas — second on debut and Isaac del Toro completing a UAE 1-3. The shortened 64 km of gravel did nothing to soften the selection: Pogačar attacked, only Seixas and Del Toro could initially hold, then only one. Same race, same outcome.
OPENING201 km, shortened from the usual 215 to fit 64 km of gravel rather than the recent ~85 km. Whether or not the shortening was supposed to make the race tactically richer, it didn't change the script: a modest early break, the favourites' teams rotating control, the race kept on tempo through the opening four sterrato sectors.
UNFOLDSMonte Sante Marie — Sector 10, the canonical Strade Bianche selection — did exactly what it always does. UAE rode the front, Pogačar attacked, the field exploded. The decisive grouping over the top: Pogačar, Seixas, Del Toro, then a chase of Pidcock, Jorgenson, Grégoire, Kron, Van Aert.
DECIDEDOn a later short gravel sector — sources differ on which one, but it was inside the closing 25 km — Pogačar accelerated again. Del Toro couldn't follow. Seixas could, but only for a few kilometres. By the time the leading pair entered the closing 15 km, Pogačar had ridden alone and Seixas was holding what daylight he could.
FINALEPogačar took the Via Santa Caterina climb solo, into Piazza del Campo and a third Strade Bianche win on the way to what would become a three-Monument spring. Seixas had a minute back held alone; Del Toro completed the UAE 1-3 from the chase. Pidcock, Jorgenson, Van Aert filled positions 7-10 from the bunch at 1:30.
Pogačar attacks, Del Toro holds long enough to ride the chase and salvage third. The UAE pattern for 2026 — leader and a young protected co-card — got its first Monument-level expression. Del Toro's third place is a result Pogačar himself would have called a podium had it been his own three years ago.
Paul Seixas, the Tour de l'Avenir champion making his Strade debut, followed Pogačar over Monte Sante Marie and held on long enough to take a solo second. Decathlon's bet on the 19-year-old as a Monument-tier rider lands two months before Liège would confirm it again.
Visma rode two leaders in Jorgenson (the day's actual finisher) and Van Aert (returning to gravel after a long absence). Neither could match Pogačar's Monte Sante Marie selection. Jorgenson 8th, Van Aert 10th — clean top-10 ride, no Monument bid.
Tom Pidcock's first major race in Pinarello-Q36.5 kit — formerly INEOS, now riding for the smaller WorldTour outfit. 7th at Strade is a clean opening statement; two weeks later he'd come within centimetres of beating Pogačar at Sanremo.
Third Strade Bianche. Pattern identical to 2024 and 2025: attack on Monte Sante Marie, isolate one or two, drop them on a later sector, ride alone to Piazza del Campo. The spring's opening statement.
Strade debut, finished second to Pogačar at 19. Held the Monte Sante Marie attack, held the second move for a few kilometres, then settled in to ride a minute back alone. The week's biggest 'who is that?' result and the start of his Monument spring.
Visma's actual leader on the day — Van Aert riding gravel for the first time in years. Was in the chase group at +45s with Pidcock and Grégoire with 10-15 km to go but couldn't bridge to Seixas. Eighth place is the maximum return from his position.
Followed Pogačar's Monte Sante Marie attack alongside Seixas, then dropped on a later acceleration to roll in third — a UAE 1-3 on the gravel and Del Toro's first Monument-equivalent podium. Six weeks before the Itzulia crash that ended his spring.
Strade Bianche as a one-day classics tune-up. Tenth was a return-to-gravel test, not a Monument bid; his real target was a month later, at a different Monument, on different terrain.
First major race in Pinarello-Q36.5 colours; finished seventh from the chase group. A clean opener; the bigger statement would come at Milano-Sanremo two weeks later when he came within centimetres of beating Pogačar.
Strade is not a Monument but is treated like one. Pogačar's third title here makes him the most successful rider in the race's short history. The bigger long-run story leaving Siena was Paul Seixas — a 19-year-old who'd just turned the most-watched outsider on the spring calendar into a confirmed Monument-class climber, with two more podiums to come by April's end.