Visma | Lease a Bike talent under fire in Strade Bianche: “I was doing 500 watts, but those guys just came past me — not normal”

“It was hard, really hard. Blimey,” Rex puffed as he came over to speak.

What was it like to start a day like Strade with the instruction to get into the early move? “Everybody wants to be in position from the very start, and they all know exactly where they have to be. I knew it was going to be stressful, but I believed in myself.”

“I also called my oldest brother,” he explained, referring to Soudal Quick-Step rider Laurenz Rex. “He told me I could do this too, and that I just had to stay calm and not overdo it.”

“So the plan was for one of our riders to make the day’s front group, but the start was raced so incredibly hard,” Rex said. “On the second gravel sector I was in a good position, but then there was a crash in front of me. I got caught behind that, and from there I really had to suffer to get back to the front.”

He did manage to return, although it cost him more energy than he would have liked. “The first time I got back to the front, I already felt like I was going to get dropped again very quickly.”

“But then there was a moment when the road opened up in front of me and I thought: I’m just going to go full gas back to the front. Apparently everyone was hurting a bit, because three or four guys came with me and that’s how we got away,” Rex said with a laugh.

That put him in the leading move alongside, among others, Tibor Del Grosso, Jack Haig and Patrick Konrad. “It was full gas the whole time, but I managed to survive until Monte Sante Marie. My goal was to hit that sector first, but after 500 metres they came past me.” Rex had indeed been part of the nine-man break mentioned in IDL Procycling’s race report from Siena.

“I thought: what is going on here, am I standing still?! I was doing 500 watts and those guys still came past me — not normal,” he laughed. “After that, I still tried to stay with Wout van Aert for a while, but that’s probably where I blew myself up a bit.”

“That dropped me a little further back, but even there it was still flat-out racing. I don’t even know what place we were racing for, but it was so hard. I haven’t suffered like that in a long time,” said Rex, who eventually finished 55th in Strade Bianche. Van Aert ended the day in 10th, while Matteo Jorgenson finished 8th. IDL’s post-race coverage also highlighted Rex’s debut ride as one of Visma | Lease a Bike’s bright points on the day.

“I just really love gravel riding too, also in the winter,” Rex concluded. “So I genuinely enjoyed it, but I’m completely done. Now? I’ll be happy if I can get a bit of sleep on the bus.”