Pogačar Pummels Competition in Liège Following Big Seixas Scare

Tadej Pogačar fended off speculation that Paul Seixas might match him in Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday, but not before the Frenchman gave real proof he is a major champion in the making.

The 19 year old was the only one able to hold Pogačar when he went atomic on the climb of La Redoute, suffering on his wheel but managing to hold him to the summit. The duo worked together afterwards, trading equal pulls on the rolling roads towards the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, with this likely raising doubts in Pogačar’s mind.

However the world champion finally managed to snap the elastic on that final climb, his repeated accelerations dropping Seixas 580 meters before the summit and paving the way for a spectacular lone win.

He finished 45 seconds ahead of his young rival, one arm raised to a sky in memory of recently deceased former teammate Cristian Muñoz.

Evenepoel won a big group sprint for third, 1:42 back.

Evenepoel plays his hand far earlier than expected

At 259km Liège-Bastogne-Liège is one of the longest one day races in the sport and, with over 4,000 meters of elevation gain, one of the most difficult. Double winner Remco Evenepoel was trying to work out a way to beat Tadej Pogačar and decided to do so with early aggression, infiltrating a large split which went clear soon after the start due to a crash.

With Evenpoel adding some power to the opportunistic 52-man break, the gap grew to almost four minutes but hard chasing behind saw it finally recaptured 82km from the end, just before the top of the Côte de Stockeu.

The big question was how much that had taken out of the Belgian, and that seemed to be answered when the real action kicked off on La Redoute. UAE hit warp speed for Pogačar and that surge saw Evenepoel dropped 1.2km from the top, 35.1km from the finish line. Pogačar himself kicked 200 meters later and only Seixas was able to go with him.

The 19 year old was under all sorts of pressure, but Pogačar’s repeated digs were unable to gap him. They went over the summit together and after the descent Seixas began riding through. Mattias Skjelmose was 25 seconds back with 32km left, with a big chase group dragged along by Evenepoel catching him 2km later. They were 40 seconds behind the leading duo there.

Pogačar dialled up the pressure on the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons and Seixas was finally blown 580 metres from the top, a fraction under 14km from the finish. He tried to limit the gap but drifted further and further back. Behind, Skjelmose scampered clear of the chase group on the same climb but had almost two minutes to make up.

Pogačar was riding very strongly and had 37 seconds on Seixas with 10km remaining. That gap ballooned after that,

Skjelmose was mopped up by Evenepoel on the run in to the finish, but they in turn were absorbed by the rest of the chase group.

More to follow soon…