The holidays are coming, also for the riders. Piece by piece, the WorldTour pros worked out some solid training, mostly with their team during the conclusion of a training camp. Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel made the blitz with UAE Emirates-XRG and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe on Friday, in a far puddle race.
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Like a year ago, Pogacar attacked the Strava-KOM (read: the record time) on the wildly popular Coll de Rates in Spain and rode his top time from 2024 out of the books, becoming the very first rider to dip under 12 minutes. Like last year, his entire UAE team was there to pace him, including Mexican champion Isaac Del Toro. The last bit Pogacar did alone.
The Strava records were flying around our ears and thus determined the news, especially when Unibet Rose Rockets got involved. That, however, ignores the monstrous training that Pogacar continued to complete with his teammates. The Coll de Rates was only a small part of a day that totaled 226.11 kilometers and had 4,302 altimeters.
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In that training, by the way, we saw two more Strava-KOMs pass by. Because since Friday, Pogacar is also the record holder on the climbing segments 'CASTELL DE CASTELLS-FACHECA' and'CV710 to Confrides'. Both segments of just over 9 kilometers (9.63 and 9.06 that is) were broken by 1.03 minutes (!) and 10 seconds respectively.
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Evenepoel goes even further than Pogacar and also breaks a record
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Kudos and a deep bow for Pogacar's star formation, but they also did impressive things at Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe on Friday, Dec. 19. Evenepoel led a sizeable classics group to test the legs. 'If you don't do the classics, you have to train them,' the Belgian world time trial champion wrote at his Strava file.
'One of those out-of-control coffee rides,' Evenepoel further joked. What that meant: 243.71 kilometers, 1,660 altimeters and a total of 6 hours on the bike. This makes Pogacar, with over 4,000 altimeters, look like the winner of the far peeing contest, especially when we see that Evenepoel's only Strava-KOM was only on a flat segment of 1.27 kilometers.
Bram van der Ploeg (35) is the proud founder of In de Leiderstrui, IDL Pro Cycling's parent site, launched in 2018. Finally, he could create stories about the sport he had followed since childhood. He is the editor-in-chief on paper, but prefers to be with his recorder next to a rider, a team bus, or in the mud at a cyclocross race. Every year, from February to the end of May, Bram follows the entire Italian cycling season, from the Trofeo Laigueglia to the Giro d'Italia, with the grand finale in October in Lombardy. During that time, he lives in Tuscany, where he has since come to call Italy his 'home'.
What Tadej Pogačar and the UAE squad did yesterday was not just an easy ride with saving everything for the Coll de Rates KOM, but they did a 226 km, 4300 m elevation gain ride with 36,8 km/h average speed.
And then did Coll de Rates KOM in the middle of the ride just for fun…
In the shadow of yesterday’s Pogačar Coll de Rates KOM ride, the Red Bull 2026 squad led by Remco Evenepoel and with Van Gils, Meeus, Vermeersch, Marit, and Van Dijke brothers did maybe even more impressive monster ride. 🤯
243 km. 40.5 km/h average. In winter. Absolutely