Tadej Pogacar already won his ninth monument with Liège-Bastogne-Liège. He was the outstanding cycling professional this spring, and according to the situation of things, he will hardly be beaten at the Tour de France.
Tadej Pogacar already won his ninth cycling monument on Sunday with Liège-Bastogne-Liège. He was the outstanding cycling professional this spring, and according to the situation of things, he will hardly be beaten in summer.
This time it happened exactly 34.8 kilometers before the finish, in a difficult climb called Côte de la Redoute. And actually it was clear that it would happen here and at that moment. So that Tadej Pogacar waited this obstacle to make the difference at this point, as so often in the bike races that he denies to drive away everyone else, to stand and be amazed without being able to do something against him. The youngest coup achieved the Slovenian world champion after 252 kilometers and six hours in the saddle on Sunday at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the fourth monument of this season: victory as a soloist and the crowning glory of an extraordinary classic campaign of spring.
Tadej Pogacar on the Côte de la Redoute
Seven victories on 14 race days
So much came together for Pogacar this time that it would be enough for a whole career. It started with a success at Strade Bianche in February, a gravel classic over steep climbs in Tuscany. In the four most important races this spring this spring, referred to in cycling jargon as a monument, Pogacar finished third at Milan-Sanremo, won the Tour of Flanders, finished Paris-Roubaix in second place and now won the tough test over eleven Ardennen hill. In between, he won the Flèche Wallonne on Huy’s wall last Wednesday and thus two classics in a row. In total, he gets seven victories on 14 racing days – this is a sensational quota that breaks out every standard.
The still outstanding fifth monument, the Lombardy tour in October, is also a kind of free play for Pogacar. There he has won four times in series since 2021. With six monuments in a row, this phenomenon from the Central Slovenian city of Komenda now occupied the podium of the cycling memorial series. Not even the victorious Belgian Eddy Merckx had managed to do that, whose rental seems to have been found 50 years later with Pogacar. Pogacar said about his increasingly historic role in the middle of his sport in Liège: “I am a cycling professional because I enjoy not doing any books in which I appear.”
Pogacar already third in the eternal Classic rating
Merckx has 19 successes in the five super classics of cycling. This record seemed to be reserved for him forever. Pogacar, 26 years old, but is already third in this eternal classification with nine victories, he shares this position with the Italians Constante Girardengo and Fausto Coppi as well as the Irish Sean Kelly, heroes of their sport 100, 70 and 40 years ago. For second place and the Belgian Roger de Vlaeminck, Pogacar is only missing two triumphs.
And the competition? Must arise. The Italian Giulio Ciccone, second in Liège with almost a minute behind, said: “To only be beaten by Tadej is not a success, but it feels like that.” There was nothing to be seen this time by Remco Evenepoel, the Belgian double Olympic champion, who was chosen as Pogacar’s challenger. Even Evenepoel missed Pogacar’s attack and, as a isolated pursuer, had no chance afterwards. In the end he finished 59th.
Pogacar, in turn, celebrated his victory by raising his bike into the warm air of late in the afternoon behind the finish line. It was his last appearance for the time being, now he wants to withdraw “Drink good coffee, hang out with friends and take a distance from cycling”.
Talk on the podium: Tadej Pogacar (right) and Giulio Ciccone
Break to the Dauphiné tour
And prepare yourself for the next tasks quite soon. His next assignment is scheduled for June on the Dauphiné tour, which he used as a dress rehearsal for the Tour de France in July, the latest edition of which he won last summer. Pogacar has so far collected three victories at the world’s largest bike race, and the question arises as to who could prevent him from receiving the fourth triumph.
Even after a four-month break, even after a four-month break, Evenepoel, 2024, has returned to which a training accident forced him in early December. He broke his right shoulder blade, a rib and the right wrist. On Sunday, as with the Flèche Wallonne, it became clear that he still needed a lot of time to move in the spheres in which Pogacar is.
Vingegaard 2025 The sphinx of cycling
Mathieu van der Poel, who fought a fascinating duel with Pogacar in the spring and who was able to conquer it in Sanremo and Roubaix, is not a candidate for a top position in the overall classification due to his robust constitution during tours. And Jonas Vingegaard, who completed it in 2022 and 2023 to conquer Pogacar on the tour, is the sphinx of cycling this season. He can hardly be seen in competitions.
Vingegaard was able to win the Algarve tour in February, at Paris-Nizza in March he plunged in the course of the fifth of eight stages, but then drove down, but then got out-a strong concussion was very much. After a phase of regeneration, he now trains intensively. At the Dauphiné he will meet Pogacar for the first time, and then know whether his shape could be enough for a third tour coup. Tour director Christian Prudhomme has his doubts: “Most recently, the driver won the tour that did not fall in spring”he told the sports show in Liège. Vingegaard had a violent accident before the tour in 2024 on the Basque Country Routing in April, which resulted in a long regeneration phase.
Tour boss hopes for “actual” duel Pogacar-Vingegaard
On the tour, the Dane took second place, but was completely without a chance against Pogacar’s primeval power in the Pyrenees and in the Alps. Pogacar finally won six stages and the tour with more than six minutes before Vingegaard. In 2023, Pogacar plunged at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, broke a wrist, and had no chance against Vingegaard on the tour in July. “Hopefully the effects of Vingegaard’s setback were not too big to actually expect a duel on the tour”hopes Prudhomme.
But in view of the most recent dominance of Pogacar, his status as an outstanding mountaineer and outstanding time driver, it should be difficult for Vingegaard this summer to conquer his Slovenian tour of the tour a third time. Because the tour of France has maximum difficulties in the Pyrenees and the Alps this summer. Pogacar terrain.