Just days after Tadej Pogačar was nominated for the world’s best sportsman crown in the Laureus World Sports Awards – the second successive year he’s been one of six nominees – he turned up at Strade Bianche, his first bike race of 2026, and immediately announced his candidacy for next year’s award. This season, said his legs, will be just like the last seven: dominated by the boy wonder from Slovenia. The only difference is that this time his hair is dyed bleach blonde.

People like to say that cycling is too complicated for newbies to understand, but that’s not the case; there’s been a very easy script to follow in cycling in the 2020s: if Pogačar is in the race, Pogačar will win the race. And at Strade Bianche, that script is even more specific: at 80km to go – eighty, eight-zero – on the 11.5km-long gravel sector of Monte Santa Marie, Pogačar will be rushed to the front by his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates and then he’ll clip off the front and solo to victory. 

Sometimes, riders like Tom Pidcock (2025) and Paul Seixas (2026) can initially stay with him. But eventually they’re dislodged and Pogačar has an open road ahead of him to create yet more history. This time he cruised to his fourth victory at Strade, taking him ahead of Fabian Cancellara as the rider with the most wins in this young but legendary race. It’s now the GOAT’s race, not Spartacus’s.

This article was published by Rouleur in March 2026. To read the full article click here.