Slovenian Tadej Pogacar world champion after an insane raid in Zuric. Mathieu Van der Poel takes 3rd place.
Tadej Pogacar won his first world champion title on Sunday in Zurich by attacking 100 kilometers from the finish to achieve a feat unseen in 37 years.
The Slovenian, who dynamited the race with a completely crazy offensive, became only the third rider in history after Eddy Merckx in 1974 and Stephen Roche in 1987 to win the Tour of Italy, the Tour de France and the Tour de France in the same year. World Championships.
He won alone, maintaining a 34-second lead over Australian Ben O’Connor and 58 seconds over Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel, who was the defending champion, after a seemingly insane raid. suicidal on a long route (273 km) and very hilly (4,470 m altitude difference).
Accelerating 100 (!) km from the finish, a distance not recommended in all cycling manuals, to return like an arrow to a group of breakaways where his compatriot Jan Tratnik was waiting for him. He did it again twenty miles further, this time with the Frenchman Pavel Sivakov, his teammate for the year at UAE, in his wheel.
The Frenchman Sivakov resisted then broke down
Sivakov accompanied Pogacar for a lap, delighted with the opportunity, before breaking down in the steep climb on Bergstrasse. With 51 km to go, the Slovenian set off alone to gain up to a minute’s lead over his first pursuers to finally complete his incredible odyssey and sign one of the greatest feats in the history of cycling.
Behind, Remco Evenepoel, who was in the running for a new time-line race double after that of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris and finally 5th, and Mathieu Van der Poel ended up reacting with a small group to come dangerously close in a final suspenseful. But without managing to come back on the Slovenian who, without ever gaining a huge advantage, resisted until the end.
