Towering over the race course of the World Championships, is the Grossmünster, the most recognisable building of Zürich with its twin Romanesque towers. It was from here that Huldrych Zwingli effectively kicked off the Swiss-German reformation, splitting the city and in time much of Switzerland from the Catholic church.
Tadej Pogačar’s momentous victory in the men’s road race at the Worlds, then, is not the first time that history has been made at the heart of Zürich, although it is the latest. The Slovenian became the fourth person and third man in cycling’s record books to win the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and the World Championships road race all in the same season, an achievement often thought so unlikely that it has often been dismissed by the best riders in the world.
To be at the peak of your form in May, July and then September is an incredible outlay, one that seems almost beyond belief - as Remco Evenepoel put it, Pogačar is “not normal”.
The Slovenian, for his part, seemed more emotional and exhausted than usual as he rode to victory on Sunday, after attacking from 100km out and then going solo with over 50km to go. Even at moments of great triumph before, he rarely looks spent. He did at the Worlds, and also was emotional on the podium, scarcely able to take in the size of his achievement.
“It’s going up like a rollercoaster of emotions right now,” the 26-year-old said in his winner’s press conference. “I experienced all the emotions already today. It was crazy, the last kilometre. When I saw the teammates and Urska [Žigart, his partner], and all the interviews I’ve done before, it was really nice emotions. I’m really… I almost cried at every interview I did before.”
“When I was a kid, I didn’t even dare to dream of having this jersey, I just dreamed to be on the start line,” he continued. “In the last couple of years, chasing races, the Worlds was always just another race, but I was never really prepared for it. But inside of me I wanted to perform well, and this year was the perfect opportunity. It was a good parcours for me. I gave it all today, and it’s more than a dream come true. I can’t wait to start the next races in this jersey, I hope it’s going to be cool and I hope I can have fun in this jersey at races.”
After his third Tour de France triumph in July, his first since 2021, Pogačar said: “It’s hard to describe how I feel right now. It’s all a bit crazy. The craziest feelings I‘ve had so far in cycling, for me.”
On Sunday evening then, those crazy feelings must be even higher. He simply cannot stop winning, but now looked exhausted.
“It was really hard, because I was empty,” he said. “I was already looking with my eyes crossed a bit, I couldn’t even stand on the pedals anymore, but I pushed through, I didn’t give up.”
To make it all the more impressive, he slept through his alarm this morning: "We had to wake up quite early today, and I’m not a guy who wakes up early, so I had three alarms. First one, turn off, back to sleep, and then Urska woke me up, all good. No stress."
Even though he came into the Worlds as the overwhelming favourite, the nature of his win surprised almost everyone, including seemingly Pogačar. The Slovenian made his move on the Zürichbergstrasse on the fourth of seven times around the Zürich loop, with 100km still to ride.
“For sure it was a stupid move, but in the end stupid worked,” he said. “Not so stupid anymore, It was not panic, I don’t know what happened really. I felt good at that moment, and I had Jan Tratnik at the front, and when he waited for me, I was really motivated. It was a bit early, but I knew once I had a solid gap, 30/40 seconds, there were no big teams to pull at the back. You never know when you can turn on the engine. I never gave up believing to the finish line.”
Pogačar often seems a rider who rides more on feel than anyone else in the current era, but his move on Sunday took it to the next level. It was an attack based on seemingly nothing - it was too early, the race hadn’t been hard enough yet, teams still had support riders left - and yet it worked.
“It wasn't the plan,” Pogačar said. “Like I said before, it was a stupid move. I was just putting one bullet to one knee, and then I had a couple minutes later to the other knee, and that would be it. When I saw Jan in the front, he’s such a machine, he can pull super strong, and that’s what he did. He gave me hope, he gave me motivation. It was still early when he left, but I was riding a bit with my legs and my head [by then], and I was counting down the kilometres, and trying not to go over the limit, and I made it.
“You don’t decide stupid moves, because when you’re stupid, you do stupid things. You don’t think about it, that’s why it’s stupid. It worked. It’s not stupid anymore, and let’s leave this behind us now.”
One was left wondering if this was stupid, how much would he win if he was smart? But that doesn’t matter much anymore, he made it through, completed the triple, made history in Zürich.
As Zwingli ushered in the Swiss Reformation, every big race to remind us that we are very much in the era of Tadej Pogačar. “It seems like this is just the beginning”, third-placed Mathieu van der Poel said. It seems like we’re going to see a lot of the rainbow jersey winning races this year and next; there will be no curse for this world champion.
