There was a good chance that he wouldn’t succeed, Tadej Pogacar had thought, deep into the final of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. He was not going to beat this opponent. Paul Seixas, a 19-year-old Frenchman, did not flinch on the Côte de la Redoute. Took a brutal lead when the two of them rode towards the final climb, the dreaded Roche aux Faucons. Still kept his wheel in the first part of the climb. Should Pogacar gamble on the final sprint in Liège, man against man?
Ultimately, an ultimate effort by Pogacar Seixas at 590 meters from the top suddenly became too powerful. As a result, the world champion still rode solo to victory in the last twelve kilometers. And Pogacar won Liège-Bastogne-Liège again, for the fourth time.
“I already prepared myself for the sprint, because he was so strong,” Pogacar said in a first interview afterwards. Nice gesture how the 27-year-old Slovenian walked back to the finish line to hug Seixas, who finished 45 seconds after him. He had all the praise for the new rival, who had pushed him to the limit. “Impressive,” he said.
The figures provided the proof in black and white: 259 kilometers with 4,400 meters of elevation gain at an average speed of 44.3 kilometers per hour. More than two kilometers per hour faster than the previous record, also set by Pogacar, last year. “Really hard,” concluded TV commentator Michael Boogerd.
Of course the lists are becoming more and more impressive. With his fourth victory in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Pogacar is level with Moreno Argentin and Alejandro Valverde in the eternal rankings of the Walloon classic – only Eddy Merckx has won once more. In his fifth race of this season he won for the fourth time, only in Paris-Roubaix Wout van Aert was too strong.
He won his third ‘monument’ of this season on Sunday (after Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders), his thirteenth in total. “I don’t race that much so I don’t have that many chances to win,” Pogacar reflected. “Fortunately I managed to win another major cycling race.”
Record on Wall of Huy
Perhaps the winner in Liège also realized that on his favorite terrain, tough one-day races and grand tours, an opponent of special stature seems to have emerged. Fame preceded Seixas. Third at the European Championships at the end of last season, behind Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel. This spring he excelled in Strade Bianche (second behind Pogacar) and in the Tour of the Basque Country (final winner, three stage victories). Four days before ‘Liège’ he was the best in the Flèche Wallonne, where he went three seconds faster on the Wall of Huy than Pogacar’s record from 2023. But could the young leader of the French Decathlon team immediately fulfill his promise in his first tough classic?
He presented himself at the start in the morning as self-confident and humble. Seixas understood that everyone was looking at Pogacar, Evenepoel and himself. But winning wouldn’t be easy, first try to follow. So Pogacar and his UAE team were allowed to do most of the work when, after just a few kilometers, Evenepoel joined a large breakaway group that took a few minutes. Only just before the Côte de Wanne, with 94 kilometers to go, did the two groups come together. UAE further ‘strangled’ the competition in the run-up to the Côte de la Redoute, the key point where Pogacar usually decides the match.
Evenly matched
But when the world champion started to scorch a kilometer below the top, the young Seixas surprisingly stayed on the wheel. “I saw everything blurry at that moment,” the Frenchman admitted afterwards Cycling flash. The rest of the group seemed to almost stand still and saw the gap quickly increase to more than a minute. Evenepoel, who would have finished third after a tough final sprint, also failed to provide an answer. At the front, the two leaders seemed evenly matched. “Yes, I had to take over and speed up with him,” Seixas said afterwards.
Only halfway through the final climb did Pogacar prove to be slightly stronger than Seixas. “The logic has happened, the beast has left,” said commentator José De Cauwer at the Belgian channel Sporza. Although after Sunday the question seems justified as to how long it will be logical for Pogacar to ride uphill away from Seixas.
