Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) concluded his spring season with a historic win at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which he dedicated to his fiancée Urška Žigart’s mother, who passed away before the 2022 race.
The Slovenian was tipped as the favourite for the 2022 edition of the race but announced he would not be racing on the eve of the race following the tragic personal news. In his post-race interview following his win of the 2024 edition, he made clear how significant the impact on him had been.
“It was quite emotional for me all day riding on the bike, thinking of Urška’s mother two years ago, and we had to go home,” Pogačar said in a broadcast interview immediately after the race finish.
“I was riding for Urška’s mother today.”
However, the 2022 edition was only the first of two traumatic race editions for Pogačar, as the 2023 edition saw Pogačar crash out with a broken hand, which derailed a large portion of his racing season.
“The last two years were really difficult,” Pogačar said.
While the 2023 edition had promised a showdown between Pogačar and Evenepoel, this year saw an undiluted battle between the strongest riders of the 2024 Spring Classics as Mathieu van der Poel lined up against the former Tour de France winner.
Whether the result of a tactical misstep, a day of fatigued legs or simply bad luck, Van der Poel struggled on the 254.5km course – finding himself on the wrong side of a split in the final 100km, which put him 1:30 behind his rival at one point in the race.
Van der Poel and Alpecin-Deceuninck bridged back to the main peloton, but the effort may have played a part in allowing Pogačar a clear run when it came to his blistering attack on the Côte de la Redoute.
That move seemed like the plan from the outset. “We rode hard on the climbs, and safe on the downhills and on La Redoute we did exactly what we said,” Pogačar said. “And from then on it was suffering to the finish.”
While the conditions were more forgiving than the savage temperatures at La Flèche Wallonne earlier this week, the start was a brisk 5°C, and the race witnessed several sharp downpours - meaning caution was central to Pogačar's plans.
“It was a miserable day from the start,” Pogačar explained. “All day in my mind. Just to be careful. Last year I had all day in my mind to save as much as possible the energy but today, I was more on the safe side.”
The win marks an exceptional season performance so far for the UAE Team Emirates rider, who has raced on only 10 days and won on seven of them. With two of those days being stages at the Volta a Catalunya – where he won the overall classification, mountain jersey and points jersey – the only race where Pogačar has not excelled has been Milan-San Remo, where he took third place.
The performance so far will fuel anticipation for his Giro d’Italia campaign, where he enters as the clear favourite.
“I'm really, really happy that finally, I can again win this beautiful race, and thanks to all the team that worked for me today,” Pogačar added.
“It was amazing teamwork and I couldn't have done it without them and I’m full of emotion.”
