Slovenian completes triple: Giro, Tour, and Worlds

Tadej Pogačar put in a monumental ride at the World Championships road race in Zurich, Switzerland with the 26-year-old staying away solo after more than 100km on the attack. Second was the Australian Ben O’Connor (Australia) +34” and third was Mathieu Van Der Poel (Netherlands) +58”.

The action began at -100km when Pogačar surprised his rivals by attacking with still four laps remaining. He would build a slender lead of no more than a minute with assistance from his teammate Jan Tratnik (Slovenia) who helped to pull Pogačar across to the original breakaway groups which had merged ahead. With little cooperation happening out in front, Pogačar struck out with only Pavel Sivakov (France) for company though the lead over the chasers would never rise much over 40-50 seconds.

As the advantage waned and groups behind began to form, Pogačar persevered to arrive to the line alone after a remarkable season which now includes the Giro D’Italia, Tour de France and now the coveted World Championships title. He becomes only the third rider in history, after Eddy Merckx and Stephen Roche, to win the Giro, Tour, Worlds triple.

Pogačar: “I cannot believe what just happened, after this kind of season, I put a lot of pressure on myself for today. I had pressure from myself, from the team, we came here for the victory. The race unfolded pretty quick and there was a dangerous break in the front, I maybe did a stupid attack, luckily Jan [Tratnik] was there with me, and I never gave up until the final. It’s an incredible day, I can’t believe what happened. Of course, it was not planned. We had planned to keep race under control, but the race went quite early, and I don’t know what I was thinking, and I just went also, I went with the flow and luckily, I made it, but it was so tough.

For sure I wanted this title, after many years fighting for the Tour de France and other races, I never had a World Championships as a pure goal, and this year everything went smoothly already. After a perfect season, this was a big goal to win the World Championships and I can’t believe it happened, I have to thank the whole team, without them it would not have been possible and I’m super proud of the national team.”

Results

1.Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) 6:27:30

2.Ben O’Connor (Australia) +34”

3.Mathieu Van Der Poel (Netherlands) +58”