{"id":1818208,"date":"2026-03-10T09:20:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T06:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1818208"},"modified":"2026-03-10T09:20:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T06:20:36","slug":"van-der-poel-outkicks-del-toro-jorgenson-crashes-out-of-second-wheel-in-wild-gravel-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1818208","title":{"rendered":"Van der Poel Outkicks Del Toro, Jorgenson Crashes out of Second Wheel in Wild Gravel Finale"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/time-to-team-up.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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Jim Cotton<\/span><\/div>\n

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Updated March 10, 2026 10:52AM<\/div>\n
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Mathieu van der Poel lived up to his status as all-terrain classics king by outsprinting Giulio Pellizzari and Isaac del Toro after a wild Strade Bianche-style finale of Tirreno-Adriatico.<\/p>\n

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Van der Poel, Del Toro, and Pellizzari came together in the final of Tuesday\u2019s second stage after a sinuous, ramping stretch of slick sterrato<\/em> in the closing 7km provoked carnage behind them.<\/p>\n

Matteo Jorgenson crashed out of Van der Poel\u2019s wheel, GC hopeful Thymen Arensman slid out on a bend, and MVDP himself made his second miracle save in two weeks.<\/p>\n

The cyclocross ace was forced to dab a foot to stay upright as his wheels slid out beneath him on the rain-sodden Tuscan stones.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very difficult,\u201d Van der Poel at the finish. \u201cThe level was incredibly high on the last climb. The rain in the last half hour made it quite tricky, especially. But the team did a fantastic job.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Van der Poel lit up the race at the start of the gravel strip and held it down against the GC climbers over the jagged 15 percent ramps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to take the lead because I knew there were some tricky corners,\u201d he said. \u201cPlus, I wanted to make the race as fast as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\ud83d\udca5 Jorgenson is down, and so is Thymen Arensman a bit later \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n

Even Mathieu is slipping on these roads, but he’s in the lead with Pellizzari and Isaac del Toro <\/p>\n

Follow #TirrenoAdriatico @CA_Ita on Rai (\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9) and on Eurosport (\ud83c\udf10) pic.twitter.com\/fRsG1IKFnf<\/p>\n

\u2014 Tirreno Adriatico (@TirrenAdriatico) March 10, 2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Del Toro resists Van der Poel for GC lead<\/h2>\n

Del Toro made the ride of the day by repeatedly countering Van der Poel\u2019s muscle in the final 15 minutes of racing as he sought to drive a wedge into his straggling classification rivals.<\/p>\n

It worked.<\/p>\n

The mega-Mexican and Pellizzari gained 17 seconds on their GC rivals and went 1-2 on the classification. Del Toro leads Red Bull\u2019s rising Italian by 3 seconds.<\/p>\n

U.S. star Jorgenson limited his losses after his crash and made it back to the group of Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d, Richard Carapaz, and the majority of the GC hopefuls.<\/p>\n

Jorgenson\u2019s teammate Wout van Aert had been eyeing a match-up with Van der Poel in the gnarly finale but was caught out of position.<\/p>\n

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This was must-watch bike racing. Here\u2019s hoping for more across the remaining 5 stages of the Italian race.<\/p>\n

Tirreno-Adriatico stage 2:<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Jim Cotton<\/span><\/div>\n

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Updated March 10, 2026 10:52AM<\/div>\n
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[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/van-der-poel-wild-gravel-finale\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/time-to-team-up.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated March 10, 2026 10:52AM Mathieu van der Poel lived up to his status as all-terrain classics king by outsprinting Giulio Pellizzari and Isaac del Toro after a wild Strade Bianche-style finale of Tirreno-Adriatico. Van der Poel, Del Toro, and Pellizzari came together in the final of Tuesday\u2019s second stage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1818208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1818208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1818208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1818208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1818208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}