The monuments, such as the Church, write their liturgy in the stone and the asphalt of old roads over the decades and choose their high priests, who execute it beautifully, enviablely, and in Mons in Pévèle de la Roubaix, and this Sunday all their faithful want to be him, free, attacker usually, this Sunday too,
Like the great artists, Pogacar, 26, turns the great routine, the pedal stroke into a brushstroke, and drives the viewer under the lazy sun of April, his White Culotte Refulge, the motorcycles accelerate to advance how he want to open his courtship, the arc of the rainbow, and his blond lock flees from the helmet, and behind the trumpets of submission. He is pursued by a squad, an impossible alliance of injured dreaming of being seconds and from which the tireless rebels Tom Pidcock and Ben Healy, the almost resurrected Alaphilippe, the tenacious Ciccone, pencil. In which Evenepoel is not exhausted, without gas to feed your desire.
The third liege, the classic, say, more predictable, it is the ninth monument of Pogacar-three harsh, two Flanders, four Lombardia In 72, he has not come down from the podium, third in San Remo, second in Roubaix. The numbers of a sweet Caníbal, version light of the Ogro Merckx.
Like the champions of the past that we only know of read, epic poems to their victories, to their generosity, their waste without calculation, its fierce, Pogacar, the champion of technological cycling, the great champion of the 21st century, travels through the path of the classics with the same dedication with which, as of June, it will always face, always as the greatest favorite, the great tests in stages. In the departure list, it was the only one of the 175 participants who had not skipped any since last September, the Siena dust roads, the Mediterranean ends in San Remo, the stones and the mountains of Roubaix and Flanders, the routes of the rainbow in the Swiss autumn, the mountains of Lombardy, the Holland hills and the wall of Huy. And in all he has left his mark, even falling or being wrong, deceived by enthusiasm, as in the Amstel. Only he resists that rhythm, and minimizes his difficulty, classic of more than 250 kilometers that represent the absolute of cycling, the precipice.
Durious this calendar? Not at all. An effort between six and seven hours on Sundays, and a week in between, to recover from muscle damage with walks. No other cyclist would endure it.
It was the first time that Remco Evenepoel and Pogacar, the winners of the last four classic, champions born with the century, crossed their bicycles in the mountains of dark forests and dreary, warlike, resonances, and deep valleys, and their love for the redoute, military redoubt of 1,300m to 10%, with cap of 20%, and a false final plain open to the wind and a curve A new quaber, 30 kilometers from the finish line. Attacking there, the local Evenepoel, double Olympic champion in Paris, won in 2022 and 2023, with Pogacar absent or fallen. And it was there, at the same point, where the world champion, Evenepoel absent, won, in 2024, his second Dean, the last monument of spring. Before, the cyclists already arrive touches, almost sunken, for the hardness of the Wanne trio, stockkeu, so loved by Merckx, and Haute Levée, the slope in steps, then, only Les Forges and the Roche Aux Faucons. Evenepoel comes dead. All the platoon, too. There is no fight.
“No, attacking in the Redoute was not the plan, but my team had put such a hard rhythm that I saw that others no longer had many colleagues, and I told myself,“ Okay, I’m going to try a little legs to see if I get hollow in the head. Then I will decide whether or not, ”says the Slovenian, three tours and a turn also in his counter. 34.7 kilometers from the finish It reaches more than minute 30. Then, only the enjoyment remains. At first his Quick Step controlled the squad, running in the lead all day, and then, at a given time, they all disappeared from the head, I don’t know why. I thought that perhaps they were reserving the legs for La Redoute, because you can save a lot in the sprint, that is what I thought, but then, the time came, I looked around and did not have Remco to Rueda, and that was a good motivation to attack. ”
Pogacar is not alone. He leads a generation, that of Van der Poel and Evenepoel in the classics, that of Vingegaard in the Tour, who leaves no slits for some ray of a cheerful sun to life to his rivals. Since the April Liege, 2022, three years ago, 17 monuments and three World Cups have been played. Except for the San Remo of 2024 that Van Der Poel gave to his friend, and Pogacar, Philipsen, the remaining 18 races are distributed among the three: eight Pogacar, seven van der Poel and two Evenepoel. They ask the Slovenian if now that he ends he declares himself happy with his campaign as spring classics, and he replies: “I am happy to finally go home.” Until mid June Pogacar Hibernáá. A few days in his monaco, a few weeks in height and Dauphiné. The tour awaits. Vingegaard awaits you. And also the story, of course.
