Tadej Pogacar won his first Tour of Flanders this Sunday, April 2, the fourth Monument of his career, by taking off on the last ascent of Old Kwaremont to cross the line alone.
On attack all day, Tadej Pogacar made the difference on the penultimate climb of the day to edge 17 seconds ahead of one of his main rivals, Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel, who was the outgoing winner.
The other big favourite, Belgian Wout Van Aert, finished only fourth by more than a minute, beaten by Dane Mads Pedersen who settled the small chasing group in the sprint.
Third in the Tour of Flanders last year, the French Valentin Madouas had to retire, approaching the first cobbled section, 164 km from the finish. The runner suffered from gastro.
At 24, Pogacar becomes only the third rider in the history of more than a century of cycling, with the French Louison Bobet and the Belgian Eddy Merckx, to have won both the Tour de France and the “Ronde”. ” It’s amazing, it’s a day I will never forget. I could almost retire after this day”commented the Slovenian.
3 – Tadej Pogacar 🇸🇮 became the 3rd rider to win the Tour de France (2020, 2021) and the Tour of Flanders (2023) in his career, after Louison Bobet (Tdf x3 and Ronde x1) and Eddy Merckx (Tdf x5 and Round x2). Cannibal? #RondeVanVlaanderen pic.twitter.com/oDj0akbKlK
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) April 2, 2023
He won at the end of a very lively race, marked by many crashes and disputed at a crazy pace, the fastest in history (44.1 km / h), in the gray and cold, in front of hundreds of thousands of spectators.
Soon the equal of Merckx?
The Slovenian knew he had to start alone to avoid the same mishap as last year when, for his first participation, he was beaten in the sprint by Van der Poel, after having already shown himself to be the strongest.
On Sunday, he ran to perfection, torturing his opponents in each of the mountains, before knocking out the competition definitively on the slippery cobblestones of Old Kwaremont and Paterberg, to spin alone towards the finish, face grimacing.
After his victories at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2021, and at the Tour of Lombardy in 2021 and 2022, he now has four Monuments to his credit.
Of the five biggest classics on the calendar, he only has Milan-Sanremo left, where he finished fourth a month ago, and Paris-Roubaix to conquer.
Only one man has managed to win the five Monuments and the Tour de France: Eddy Merckx.
” Sanremo is the toughest race to go for. This year I was in great shape, but I’m not going to give up. Roubaix? We’ll see if I’ll try one day, but I’ll have to put on a few pounds first.”he said.
“Pogi” thus continues on the exceptional basis of its start to the season with victories in the Tour of Andalusia and Paris-Nice.
His victory on Sunday in Oudenaarde is already his tenth in 2023, in just 16 days of racing.
(With AFP)