Cycling star Pogačar wins Liège–Bastogne–Liège again with another uphill attack
Cycling star Tadej Pogačar launched one of his trademark uphill attacks to win the Liège–Bastogne–Liège classic race for the third time on Sunday.
The defending champion made his move some 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the end of the undulating 252-kilometer (156-mile) trek to open up a gap of 10 seconds at the top, and then kept increasing it all the way to the line.
It was his third victory overall at the spring classic race, which is also one of the five “monuments” in one-day cycling along with Paris-Roubaix on the cobbles, the Tour of Lombardy, Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders.
Pogačar now has nine “monument” victories.
He was so far ahead Sunday that he even had time to turn and smile at the roadside camera filming him, then touched hands with fans near the finish before raising his arms in the air with victory assured.
He won in just over six hours and finished 1 minute, 3 seconds ahead of Italian Giulio Ciccone in second and Irishman Ben Healy in third. They contested a sprint to the line.
In decent racing conditions, Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates teammates increased the speed at the front of the main pack and the peloton caught a small group of front-runners with 60 kilometers to go, and with the main favorites still in contention.
But when Pogačar surged ahead on the Côte de La Redoute climb, no rider could follow him.
It was a similar story on Wednesday, when Pogačar launched a trademark uphill attack to win the Flèche Wallonne classic for the second time.
The 26-year-old Slovenian will aim to win the showcase Tour de France for the fourth time later this year.
It was a disappointing race for two-time champion Remco Evenepoel as the Belgian rider was dropped by Pogačar up the Redoute climb.
The two-time Olympic champion could not gain any time back and instead dropped down to finish in 59th place, 3:11 behind Pogačar.
The 152.9-kilometer (94.8-mile) women’s race was set to finish later Sunday. ___
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