Tadej Pogacar finishes with another work of art at the Tour of Flanders

Twenty-four years, a Liège-Bastogne-Liège, two Giro de Lombardía and now, a Tour of Flanders. This is the rare letter of introduction for Tadej Pogacar, who this Sunday added to his record one of the most important victories of his professional career after winning the mythical Belgian monument.

And that only takes into account the five great classics on the world scene, because the Slovenian cyclist is exhausting the qualifiers at the same time that he is eating new challenges. The one with the walls of Flanders, with its pavé and its mystery, is one of the most sought after for him. That’s why he stood at the starting line last year to get to know the terrain and fight for victory. He escaped, he was fourth, but he learned what it takes to come back in 2023 and succeed in another vintage exhibition.

A duel against Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert was expected and indeed, with the Belgian far from his best day, Pogacar and Van der Poel took the stripes of the favorites while a group of escapees survived ahead. But with eighteen kilometers to go, on the final pass through Oude Kwaremont, Pogacar launched his attack to build a gap of around fifteen seconds on Van der Poel at the finish in Paterberg. In the most mythical pavé section of the race, he succeeded perfectly to win, in his second participation, one of the most desired events in the calendar.

He now has four monuments, three different monuments, in an equally brilliant record of great stage tours including his two Tours de France. An exceptional track record for a cyclist who keeps crossing pending challenges from his roadmap. He already has 56 victories as a professional, 10 in 2023 where he also won Paris-Nice (and three stages), the Tour of Andalusia (and three more) and the classic Jaén Paraíso Interior.