Tadej Pogacar is the dominant cycling superstar these days. The 26-year-old only demonstrated his outstanding constitution and exceptional position on Sunday when he triumphed for the third time in his career on the Liège-Bastogne-Liège cycling monument. Pogacar has long targeted the records of a certain Eddy Merckx.
If the Tour de France winner of the past year finds his best form of day, he is currently not to be defeated on the racing bike. Tadej Pogacar could not be tamed in the Belgian Ardennes on Sunday and won the one-day classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège with over a minute ahead of the second-placed Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and the third Ben Healy (Education-Easypost).
The Slovenian bike star triumphed for the third time at one of the great spring classics and celebrated his ninth victory in one of the five cycling monuments.
In the eternal list of racing drivers with the most victories in the five classics, Tadej Pocagar is already in third place.
Only the legendary Eddy Merckx, who was able to celebrate an incredible 19 successes, and Roger de Vlaeminck (eleven victories), Belgian cycling idol, especially from the 1970s, have even more victories.
The five large cycling monuments are:
- Milan-Sanremo
- Flanders tour
- Paris-Roubaix
- Liège-Bastogne-Liège
- Lombardy tour
“It just feels great to complete a spring like this,” said Pogacar after his third win in Liège after 2021 and 2024.
He was unable to fill two of his winning gaps this spring: At Milan-Sanremo, the world champion finished third, second at Paris-Roubaix.
He won the three other monuments at least twice: in addition to the “LBL” victories, he also won four times on the Lombardy tour and so far twice on the tour of the Flanders.
Only three cyclists, all of the Belgians, have won all five monuments at least once in history, but in the 50s to 70s: Merckx even won at least twice in every race, de Vlaeminck and Rik van Loy also belong to the small club.
These are the cyclists with the most victories in cycling monuments:
(Total number Siege/Siege Sanremo, Flanders, Roubaix, Liège, Lombardy)
- Eddy Merckx (Belgium) 19 7-2-3-5-2
- Roger de Vlaeminck (Belgium) 11 3-1-4-1-2
- Tadej Pogacar* (Slovenia) 9 0-2-0-3-4
- Constant Girardengo (Italy) 9 6-0-0-3
- Fausto Coppi (Italy) 9 3-0-1-0-5
- Sean Kelly (Ireland) 9 2-0-2-2-3
- Rik van Looy (Belgium) 8 1-2-3-1-1
- Mathieu van der Poel* (Netherlands) 8 2-3-3-0-0
*still active driver