Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar completed one of the most dominant seasons in cycling history by claiming his first road world title in Switzerland thanks to a spectacular attack from 100 kilometres out.
The audacious move, which rival Remco Evenepoel later described as “crazy”, saw the 26-year-old become only the third man in history after Stephen Roche in 1987 and Eddy Merckx in 1974 to complete cycling’s ‘Triple Crown’ of Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and road world championships. Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten is the only woman to have achieved the feat.
Pogacar’s latest extraordinary win will go down in history for the savage way in which he attacked the world’s best riders with 100km still remaining of the 273.9km route in Zurich, leaving the likes of Belgium’s Olympic champion Evenepoel and reigning world champion Mathieu van der Poel, of the Netherlands, in his wake.
Pogacar linked up with compatriot Jan Tratnik, who had got into the day’s breakaway, and together they pushed on. With 50km remaining, Pogacar went solo. He ended up completing the course in 6hr 27min 30sec, which was 34 seconds clear of Australia’s Ben O’Connor, who broke off the front of the chasing pack to claim silver. Van der Poel won a sprint for third. Scotland’s Oscar Onley, 21, was the first Briton home in 16th.
Pogacar’s ride capped an incredible season in which he has been almost unbeatable. Not only did the Slovenian win his third Tour title with six stage wins and his first Giro, also with six stage wins, he also won the Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Strade Bianche classics and totalled 23 victories altogether. Had he entered the Olympic road race or the Vuelta a España he would probably have won them too.
Pogacar’s rivals admitted they could not believe what they had just witnessed. “I honestly didn’t expect [him to attack] so early,” Evenepoel said in his post-race interview to VTM.
“When Mathieu van der Poel and I looked at each other, we thought it was a ‘crazy move’. But Tadej also had a strong rider in front [Tratnik]. It’s really exceptional that he was able to stay ahead, because we really didn’t sit still. There’s not much to add to that.”
Pogacar, for his part, said it had not been the plan to go so early. “Of course not,” he told Eurosport. “The plan was to keep the race under control but the race went quite early and I don’t know what I was thinking and I just went also and luckily I made it.
“It was so tough, it was incredible. After many years fighting for other races I never had the world championships as a clear goal and this year everything went smooth.”
He added: “I cannot believe what just happened. After this kind of season I put a lot of pressure on myself for today, pressure from myself and the team.
“We came here for the victory. I maybe did a stupid attack but I never gave up until the final. It’s incredible.”
