SIENA: Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar won the Strade Bianche on Saturday for the third time in his career, after recovering from a fall 50km from the finish.

Pogacar of Team UAE topped the podium by 1min 24sec ahead of Briton Tom Pidcock, with Belgium’s Tim Wellens a further 48sec adrift.

After victory in the Tuscany one-day race in 2022 and 2024, 26-year-old Pogacar now equals Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara’s record of three victories in the Strade Bianche.

“Pretty good race today. The race was super fast. It was a really strong breakaway and our guys did super amazing work in the front,” said Pogacar who completed the 213km race in 5hr 13mins and 58secs.

“We just went fast and it was a really hard race.”

After falling off his bike at a corner on a descent, Pogacar displayed several cuts to his body with blood notably visible on his left shoulder.

“I enjoyed it until I crossed the finish line. Now I’m in adrenaline wear-off and I start to feel a lot of pain,” said the reigning world champion and Tour de France winner.

“Not the best way to win a race, but a win is a win. Let’s hope it’s nothing worse than it looks and all should be fine.

“I went too fast I guess. I know this road very well. I rode it already 20 times in my life,” added Pogacar, who had been leading at the time of his fall.

“For a moment I didn’t know if I was OK. The bike was not working so I had to change the bike.

“I was a bit worried because when you crash the body takes a lot from you. But still I had enough to finish it off.”

Pogacar saw his rear wheel give way and ended up in a ditch after a spectacular spin. But the three-time Tour de France champion quickly got up and resumed the race, with his jersey and shorts ripped.

He then found himself 32 seconds behind Team Q36.5’s Pidcock, but after a change of bike, he finally caught up with the 2023 winner 45km from the finish in Siena, after Pidcock had sportingly stopped to wait for him.

“When he crashed, of course, I carried on. I didn’t know what was happening, but then he was back on his bike, he was coming back, so of course I waited,” said Paris 2024 Olympic mountain bike gold medallist Pidcock.

“He’s a competitor, he’s a world champion, you respect that, you wait, regardless of whether he’s a world champion or not.

“You know, he made a mistake. This is not how you take advantage in a race.”

Pogacar dropped Pidcock at 18.8km thanks to a lightning-fast acceleration on one of the last difficulties, the Colle Pinzuto.

“Of course I wanted to try and win. I think I did a good performance, let’s be honest. I came pretty close,” said Pidcock.

“But he (Pogacar) was still too strong in this last attack of his. I’m happy, but at the same time, of course, disappointed.”

Pogacar will have to put any lingering pain from the fall swiftly behind him as his schedule starts to heat up, with Milan-San Remo two weeks away on March 22.

Alongside Paris-Roubaix, it is one of the two Monuments that the Slovenian has yet to win and is his main objective at the start of this 2025 season.

DUBAI: India playing all their Champions Trophy matches in Dubai was a pre-tournament decision and the talk of unfair advantage is baseless, the team’s batting coach has said.

Rohit Sharma’s team face New Zealand in the title clash on Sunday at the Dubai International Stadium, where India have been unbeaten in four matches.

India refused to tour hosts Pakistan in the eight-nation tournament due to political tensions and were given Dubai as their venue in the United Arab Emirates.

“The draw that happened, it happened before,” batting coach Sitanshu Kotak told reporters. “After India winning four matches, if people feel that there is an advantage, then I don’t know what to say about it.”

The tournament’s tangled schedule, with teams flying in and out of the UAE from Pakistan while India have stayed put, has been hugely controversial.

South Africa batsman David Miller said “it was not an ideal situation” for his team to fly in to Dubai to wait on India’s semifinal opponent and then fly back to Lahore in less than 24 hours.

Even nominal hosts Pakistan had to jump on a jet and fly to Dubai to play India, rather than face them on home soil.

The pitches have been vastly different in the two countries. Pakistan tracks produced big totals, in contrast to the slow and turning decks of the Dubai stadium.

“End of the day, I think in a game, you have to play good cricket every day when you turn up,” the 52-year-old Kotak said. “So the only thing they (critics) may say is that we play here. But that is how the draw is.”

“So nothing else can happen in that. It is not that after coming here, they changed something and we got an advantage,” he added.

India have been the team to beat after they topped Group A, which had New Zealand, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

They then beat Australia in the first semifinal.

New Zealand, led by Mitchell Santner, lost the last group game to India by 44 runs before they beat South Africa in the second semifinal in Lahore.

Kotak said the previous result between the two teams will have no bearing on their mindset going into the final.

“That depends how the New Zealand team thinks, but I think we should not think that,” said Kotak. “We should just try and turn up and play a good game of cricket because there is no use thinking about the last match.”

New Zealand head coach Gary Stead said they are not too worried about India’s advantage.

“I mean, look, the decision around that’s out of our hands,” said Stead.

“So, it’s not something we worry about too much. India have got to play all their games here in Dubai. But as you said, we have had a game here and we’ll learn very quickly from that experience there as well.”

“And if we’re good enough to beat India on Sunday, then I’m sure we’ll be very, very happy,” he added.