Strade Bianche is not a goal for Tibor Del Grosso

Mathieu van der Poel will not start the Strade Bianche on Saturday, but from a Dutch perspective, there is still plenty of reason to look forward to the Italian classic. His younger teammate Tibor Del Grosso will indeed be present, marking his first road race of 2026. However, the 22-year-old all-rounder tempers expectations.

Alpecin-Premier Tech revealed Tibor Del Grosso’s spring program on Wednesday. As is well known, the Dutch rider kicks off Saturday with Strade Bianche. But what can we expect from the vice world champion in cyclocross? The race—with its many unpaved roads—seems like an ideal playground for Del Grosso.

"The training camp went quite well, but to me, these road races always seem to come around very quickly," he said in an interview with Het Nieuwsblad. "It’s a bit of a wait-and-see whether I’ve recovered well from all the training. I fear I will still need Strade Bianche and Tirreno-Adriatico to really get into form."

"I just notice there are expectations from outside for Strade, but there’s a reason Mathieu van der Poel isn’t starting on Saturday. Strade has really turned into a climbing race. That says enough about what ambitions I might have there. Saturday is not a target for me. I think there are other riders within our team who can go further than I can."

Focus on 'smaller' spring races
Del Grosso mainly focuses on the somewhat 'smaller' one-day races like GP de Denain, E3 Saxo Classic, and Dwars door Vlaanderen. However, he certainly doesn’t get ahead of himself. "If you see how strong the top riders are, winning in those races is very difficult. But I do hope to take another step closer."

"My cyclocross season was actually a bit above expectations, so I assume this will translate to some extent to the road. I hope to make progress, but I’m not sure how big or small that will be. After Dwars door Vlaanderen, I’ll basically ride some smaller races where I might be able to compete for the win."

No monuments
This is also why he won’t debut this spring in one of the monuments. "I do hope to aim for those in the future, but those races over 200 kilometers are quite something else. Besides, my program is partly tailored so I can go for my own chances as much as possible. In those Monuments, the team prefers to choose one clear leader."