BELGIUM: Tadej Pogacar, a cyclist for UAE Team Emirates, impressively won the Liege-Bastogne-Liege race for the third time.
The 26-year-old Slovenian athlete and world champion made a strong solo move 34 km from the finish. He finished a minute ahead of Italy’s Giulio Ciccone and Ireland’s Ben Healy. His main competitor, Belgian Remco Evenepoel, who won the past two years, was far behind and finished over three minutes later.
Pogacar has already built a legendary career, but his third win in the event, after triumphs in 2021 and 2024, strongly establishes his legacy in the sport. Furthermore, he became the second rider ever, after Eddy Merckx, to win both the Tour of Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege in the same year.
With this feat, the athlete said: “It feels great to finish the first part of the season like this. I’m just happy that the whole season so far went perfect.”
Highlights of the race
Pogacar moved on to the challenging Cote de la Redoute climb, pulling away from his competitors. He completed the 252-km race in six hours and nine seconds, securing his dominant win.
He admitted: “It wasn’t the plan (to attack on La Redoute), but it was such a hard pace before that I saw a number of teams didn’t have a lot of teammates any more… I said ‘OK, I’ll test my legs a little bit and see if I can get a gap on the top’, and then, I’ll decide if I continue or not. Then, I just committed because I had good legs, also on the second climb after La Redoute.”
In a social media post, the athlete shared: “Legs did the talking, but it took a village to get here… Liège–Bastogne–Liège—what a way to end the spring. Thank you, team, thank you everyone… Grateful for every moment, every person behind me.”
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Netizens commented on the post and said: “Once again, you performed an amazing race as the best team and rewarded them, Tadej, with an amazing victory.🏆👑🤍🌈 Thank you for a great racing experience🤍,” “What a classic season thank you Tadej your a big champion,” “What a performance, you did incredible ❤️🔥,” and “You are POGIGOAT 🐐🐐🐐💪, the strongest cyclist of the XXIst century !!!! ❤️❤️🔥🔥.”
Pogacar’s athletic performance
The athlete now has nine monument wins, placing him in third place on the all-time list with Roger De Vlaeminck, behind Eddy Merckx with 19. At 26, he also became the first rider to finish on the podium in six consecutive monument races.
Suppose Pogacar finishes on the podium once again at the Giro di Lombardia this coming October. In that case, he will make history by being the first rider to podium in all five major classics in the same year.
Now, he will take a break for over a month before returning to compete at the Criterium du Dauphine in June, preparing for his next big goal: his fourth win at the Tour de France in July.