“It just goes to show that he’s the best cyclist in the world”

Again and again he looked around in disbelief at the finish line in Oudenaarde in the last kilometer, but Tadej Pogacar could no longer take victory in the Tour of Flanders. The 24-year-old Slovenian, who has already won the Tour de France twice, triumphed as an outstanding soloist after 273.4 difficult kilometers and clinched his fourth victory at one of the big cycling monuments, after previously having won Liège-Bastogne-Liège and twice the Lombardy tour won.

“It just shows that he is the best and most complete cyclist in the world”, says his teammate in the UAE team, Felix Großschartner, appreciatively. The Marchtrenker followed yesterday in a hotel room in Spain, where he will start tomorrow’s Tour of the Basque Country, the 107th edition of the Ardennes, in preparation for the following Ardennes classics “blank” banned with. “I could retire today and be proud of my career”Pogacar then cheered, while he was given a plate of fries as a small reward.

Pogacar copied Bobet and Merckx

The feat of winning not only the biggest tour in the world but also one of the most difficult one-day races has so far only been achieved by the Frenchman Louison Bobet (1955) and the legendary Belgian Eddy Merckx (1969).

“I can only force victory solo”, the Slovenian had suspected before the race. In the final sprint with the more explosive and heavier classic specialists like Mathieu van der Poel or Wout van Aert, the Slovenian has a decisive disadvantage, as the E3 Classic revealed two weeks ago. But yesterday he made the race fast on the cobblestone climbs. The decision was made around 18 kilometers from the finish at the last crossing of the Kwaremont. Then Pogacar hung off Van der Poel, who was ultimately second, and a little later grabbed ex-world champion Mads Pedersen, who ended up third.

The race was also marked by numerous crashes. The Pole Filip Maciejuk (Bahrain) triggered the worst. He cleared half the field with a thoughtless overtaking action. Wolfsegger Michael Gogl (Alpecin) did not finish, as did the fallen Marco Haller and Patrick Gamper (both Bora). Lotte Kopecky (Bel) won the women’s race.