{"id":812501,"date":"2026-03-08T15:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T15:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/812501\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T15:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T15:39:14","slug":"am-i-standing-still-i-was-doing-500-watts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/812501\/","title":{"rendered":"Am I standing still? I was doing 500 watts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>However, the 21-year old had good legs on the day and also had a good sense of opportunity, managing then to get himself in the front. \u201cThe 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\u2019m 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\u2019s how we got away&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>But this escape attempt didn&#8217;t last long, as the pace never truly slowed down in the peloton, and a raging rhythm from UAE Team Emirates &#8211; XRG gave opportunity for no-one to anticipate into the first key moment of the race: Monte Sante Marie.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/timrex2-69ad67246f876.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"TimRex2\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Rex being caught with 83 kilometers to go from the breakaway<\/p>\n<p>The incredible numbers at the top of the sport<\/p>\n<p>With 83 kilometers to go, Rex and the surviving breakaway companions were caught by the peloton at the start of Monte Sante Marie. \u201cIt 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,&#8221; he laughed. That wouldn&#8217;t ordinarily be surprising, but that became the case once he looked at his power meter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought &#8216;what is going on here, am I standing still?&#8217; I was doing 500 watts and those guys still came past me, not normal,\u201d he joked. The stage was set, and after pulls from Florian Vermeersch and Jan Christen, only a few riders could even hold the wheel of Tadej Pogacar and Isaac del Toro.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/cycling\/video-tadej-pogacar-makes-his-move-at-strade-bianche-world-champion-goes-solo-with-78km-still-to-go\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">On the most difficult part of the sector, Pogacar attacked and rode to victory<\/a>. Behind, Visma&#8217;s battle was a different one. \u201cAfter that, I still tried to stay with Wout van Aert for a while, but that\u2019s probably where I blew myself up a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rex nevertheless didn&#8217;t just consider his job done for the day after dropping out of contention for a top result, and continued his pursuit for a good position in Siena. \u201cThat dropped me a little further back, but even there it was still flat-out racing. I don\u2019t even know what place we were racing for, but it was so hard. I haven\u2019t suffered like that in a long time&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>At the end he was 55th at the finish, but this being his debut in the race and also after a massive early breakaway effort. It was a promising performance ahead of the spring where he may have gained extra points in the fight to be in the lineup for the big classics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just really love gravel riding too, also in the winter. So I genuinely enjoyed it, but I\u2019m completely done. Now? I\u2019ll be happy if I can get a bit of sleep on the bus,&#8221; he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; However, the 21-year old had good legs on the day and also had a good sense of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,189602,180916,234507,181698,16,15],"class_list":["post-812501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-strade-bianche","tag-team-visma-lease-a-bike","tag-tim-rex","tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116194309934057358","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}