Despite not having raced in any of the Ardennes Classics prior to Liège-Bastogne-Liège this season, Tadej Pogačar was the pre-race favourite to take the victory at La Doyenne and he certainly lived up to the billing, as he went solo on the Côte de la Redoute with around 35km to go and held off the chase behind to take the victory.
The riders were faced with cold and wet conditions in the early part of the race, as the sun only emerged in the latter stages. In his post-race interview, Pogačar said that “it was a miserable day from the start, but we kept pushing hard with the team. We set a good pace, so we kept a little bit more warm”.
Pogačar also talked about what the win meant to him, as he withdrew from the race two years ago due to the passing of his partner Urška Žigart’s mother and abandoned the last year’s edition after fracturing his wrist in an early crash.
He also pointed to the sky as he crossed the finish line, stating afterwards that “all day was quite emotional for me, thinking of Urška’s mother and two years ago when we had to go home. Last year, I broke my hand, so the last two years were really difficult. I was riding for Urška’s mother today and I’m really happy that I can win this race again”.
UAE Team Emirates controlled the race for most of the day to set up Pogačar’s inevitable attack. Ever-humble in victory, the Slovenian thanked his team after the race, as he said “thanks to all the team that worked for me today, that was amazing teamwork and I couldn’t have done it without them”.
When asked whether it was the perfect plan to stay out of trouble until La Redoute and avoid being held up by a crash like Mathieu van der Poel was with just under 100km to go, Pogačar replied “I had all day in my mind just to be careful. Last year, I had all day in my mind just to conserve energy, but today I was more on the safe side. I was also conscious of staying warm as well. I had more layers on to stay warm because the first part was super cold”.
On how he and the team executed their plan in the decisive part of the race, the UAE Team Emirates rider said “the team did a super job. We rode hard on the climbs and safe on the downhills. On La Redoute we did exactly what we said we would do and then it was just suffering to the finish”.
Having previously won the race in 2021, this marked Pogačar’s second victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. On what it was like to win solo, he said “after these kind of long races, it’s super special to win solo, also with the national champion jersey on as well. It’s beautiful to win like this at the finish”.
Pogačar is now set to head to Italy for the Giro d’Italia in May, where he will be hoping to take the overall victory and complete the first part of his Giro-Tour double attempt. If his win at Liège-Bastogne-Liège is anything to go by, he will certainly be a tough man to beat in the first Grand Tour of the season.
