Slovenian to quickly fly back to Europe for final two weeks of preparation before road race rainbow chase on September 29
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) laid down a final ominous marker before he heads to the Zürich UCI Road World Championships as the favourite for the road race, riding solo to his 22nd win of the year at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal after a blistering attack 23.3km from the finish.
Suc was his dominance that the Slovenian even had time to high-five Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec winner and close friend Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) as he powered up the Avenue du Parc one final time, with soigneurs and team manager Mauro Gianetti following suit as the Emirati team celebrated past the line.
Pogačar has already brought UAE Emirates the Giro d’Italia and reclaimed the Tour de France title in 2024 and his evident form looks to he strengthening the odds on adding a rainbow jersey, the final part of the puzzle to becoming the third men’s ‘Triple Crown’ winner after Eddy Merckx (1974) and Stephen Roche (1987).
With the GP Montréal wrapped up successfully, the extra motivation is there for him to become Slovenia’s first road race world champion after their previous best as a national team being third, through Pogačar in 2023 and one of his sports directors at UAE Team Emirates, Andrej Hauptman, in 2001.
“For sure, today gave me a lot of confidence and motivation,” said Pogačar in his winner’s press conference, taking place just hours before he’d get back on a plane to Europe and begin the final push for Zürich.
“[In] two weeks you cannot do really a lot in terms of shape but just a few more training [sessions], some long, some intensive but not too much. Then I think we are ready for the World Championships.
“For sure we celebrate a little bit but in two weeks is World Championships as well so you need to focus and be ready for that.”
Be the first to comment