Tadej Pogacar wins world championships road race, Remco Evenepoel finishes fifth
Tadej Pogacar was crowned world road champion on Sunday at the world cycling championships in Switzerland. The 26-year-old Slovenian completed an incredible 100km breakaway to arrive solo at Zurich's Sechseläutenplatz.
Australian Ben O'Connor and Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel took silver and bronze respectively. Remco Evenepoel was the highest-placed Belgian in fifth. Pogacar's victory is the first world road title for a Slovenian rider.
"I can't believe what just happened," said Pogacar in the post-race interview. "The plan was to keep the race under control and maybe my attack wasn't the smartest move, but I just went with the flow (...). It was incredibly tough, but I never gave up and luckily that was enough".
'Abnormal' performance
The world title is Pogacar's crowning achievement in a historic season. The Slovenian achieved the triple crown by winning the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and the Road World Championship in the same year. Only two riders have done it before him: Belgium's Eddy Merckx in 1974 and Ireland's Stephen Roche in 1987.
"It's just something abnormal that happened here," said Evenepoel, reacting to Pogacar's performance. "It's just extraordinary. He is the best rider this year. He is the only one who deserves to wear the rainbow [jersey]."
© PHOTO FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
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