Scoop on the Cauberg: Single ruler Pogacar appears to be beating after a long solo flight – his specialty

When the last time was that he had not awarded a long solo flight with a victory? Oh, Tadej Pogacar said, after the Amstel Goldrace, quasi-unbinent, he didn’t know that anymore. « That happened very often. » And he shrugged.

Pogacar did not speak the truth – and he wants that. The sole ruler of the peloton has almost always made his countless victories in recent years with long escapes. If he went, he won. Last season, his solo flights became longer almost every game, with Strade Bianche (80 kilometers) and the World Cup in Zurich (100 kilometers) as absurd outliers. Two weeks ago, Pogacar triumphed in the Tour of Flanders after a twenty -kilometer flight.

That historic series came to an end on Sunday – and the scoop was on the Amstel Goldrace, the only classic in the Netherlands. In a compelling final, Pogacar (winner in 2023) After a flight of tens of kilometers, the Belgian Remco Evenepoel and the Dane Mattias Skjelmose. The three of them drove to the finish on top of the Cauberg – where Skjelmose won with a band thickness difference from Pogacar.

That Pogacar cannot win every one-day race in which he participates this season turned out twice before: both in Milan-Sanremo and in Paris-Roubaix, he was trumped by the Dutch classic specialist Mathieu van der Poel. But in neither races he had the opportunity to showcase his specialty. That happened in South Limburg.

Predictable scenario

When Pogacar started his flight more than forty kilometers from the finish on the Gulperberg, along with the soon again lined Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe, the predictable scenario seemed to unfold: Pogacar is gone, the rest is booming for place two. Yet the Slovenian never managed to get more than thirty seconds ahead of the pursuers. He felt less power on the pedals than normal, he told afterwards – partly due to the strong wind, which works to the disadvantage of solo flights.

Moreover, it was calculated outside of Mattias Skjelmose, the Light Danish hill specialist who was not on the favorite lists in advance. He started the chase on the Keutenberg (more than thirty kilometers before the finish), and a little later was joined by the Belgian Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel, who made his comeback this week with a win in the Brabant arrow after a heavy training accident in the fall.

A long-term cat-and-mouse game followed: Pogacar ended on the climbs, Evenepoel and Skjelmose walked in on the flat pieces. Eventually the two pursuers managed to go to Pogacar with more than seven kilometers. At the last climb of the Cauberg, they were all too exhausted to demarcate. So it became a sprint at the finish in Berg en Terblijt – with skjelmose, narrow, as the winner.

Rare defeat

At the press conference afterwards, Pogacar, hiding in a thick coat, knows his rare defeat to headwind and fatigue. « Once I started that escape, I hoped that they would look at each other in the peloton and stop. But that didn’t happen. » Incidentally, he had ‘more ago with Paris-Roubaix last week,’ said Pogacar, than this Sunday in Heuvelland in Limburg.

Next week Pogacar, Evenepoel and Skjelmose will meet twice, at the Ardennes classics Walloon Pijl (Wednesday) and Liège-Bastogne-Liège (Sunday). He doesn’t worry much about his form in those competitions, Pogacar said. « I think the legs will be good for Liège-Bastogne-Liège, my main goal. »

To share

Mail the editors