Cycling dominator Tadej Pogacar stormed to his next victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday afternoon in a spectacular duel with the rebellious French “prodigy” Paul Seixas.
At the end of the spring classic, the world champion from Slovenia drove as a soloist to his third success in a row and his fourth overall in the stage race that has been held since 1892. Pogacar only beat his 19-year-old challenger Seixas on the last climb.
Pogacar dedicates victory to his deceased teammate
After 259.5 kilometers and eleven classified climbs through the Ardennes, Tour winner Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG) was ultimately 45 seconds ahead of Frenchman Seixas (Decathlon – CMA CGM). Pogacar dedicated the victory to his former teammate Cristian Munoz, who died on Friday after an accident. Double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) was left behind early on, but still secured third place (1:18 minutes back).
“I’m very happy that we won. I couldn’t be prouder of the team“Pogacar said.”I don’t do many races, so I don’t have many opportunities to win. The pressure is therefore always great“Seixas have”strongly pulled along. In my head I was already prepared for a sprint. Luckily he fell back.”
Seixas defends himself against Pogacar
On his way to his 112th professional victory, Pogacar attacked, as he had in the past two years, on the 1.6 kilometer long and average 9.4 percent steep Côte de la Redoute, the most famous climb of the fourth monument of the year. Only Seixas, winner of the 2024 junior race, was able to follow. On the last climb, the young star from Lyon had to give up around 13 kilometers from the finish.
The strongest drivers pull away: Paul Seixas and Tadej Pogacar (r.)
Only the Belgian icon Eddy Merckx is ahead of Pogacar with five wins at “La Doyenne”, who drew level with the Spaniard Alejandro Valverde and Moreno Argentin from Italy. With his 13th success in total at the five monuments, Pogacar further reduced his gap to Merckx (19). The 27-year-old is only missing Paris-Roubaix from his collection; two weeks ago Pogacar had to admit defeat to the Belgian Wout van Aert.
Pogacar team was behind at the start
At the end of the Ardennes trilogy, Pogacar, Amstel Gold Race winner Evenepoel and Flèche Wallone winner Seixas met in a race for the first time. The three high-flyers share the victories equally. Pogacar skipped the first two races after finishing second in Roubaix.
The race started with excitement. Shortly after the start, a crash split the peloton, and a group of 52 riders around Evenepoel drove away. Pogacar and Seixas stayed behind in the peloton. At the front, Evenepoel helper Nico Denz pushed the pace, at times the lead was around 3:30 minutes. 95 kilometers from the finish the peloton caught up again. Mountain bike Olympic champion Tom Pidcock was already left behind after a defect.
At the head of the field for a long time: Nico Denz from the Bora-Hansgrohe team
Duo creates a decisive gap
Shortly afterwards the last escapees were caught. Pogacar’s UAE team increased the pace on the Côte de la Redoute with around 35 kilometers to go. When Pogacar started, only Seixas remained on his rear wheel. The duo continued to extend their lead before Pogacar forced the decision at the Côte de la Roche-aux Faucons.
