"Moment of panic"

Pogacar wins despite a fall: “It’s just meat”

Tadej Pogacar

(Bild: MARCO BERTORELLO)

After the adrenaline in his body had subsided, Tadej Pogacar gradually felt the pain. Nevertheless, the joy of his impressive coup at the Strade Bianche gravel race prevailed. "It's not the nicest way to win. But it's only meat," said the world champion succinctly, gladly accepting the deep grazes and bruises for his 92nd career victory.

Pogacar's almost insatiable hunger for great success is clearly unstoppable. Not even a heavy crash at 60 km/h, when the Slovenian hit the asphalt hard in a left-hand bend 50 kilometers before the finish after a driving mistake, rolled over and landed in a bramble in the ditch. "It was a moment of panic. I thought about everything, whether I could get up, whether my bike was okay. I was lucky that nothing was broken. It could have ended badly," reported the cycling star.

Third victory after 2022 and 2024
In the end, however, things went as they almost always do when Pogacar starts. After a sharp attack 18.5 km before the finish, the 26-year-old virtually left his British rival Tom Pidcock standing at Colle Pinzuto and finally triumphed single-handedly on the Piazza del Campo in Siena after 213 kilometers - 81.7 of which were over the white gravel roads of Tuscany. Just like in 2022 and 2024, equaling the record of Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara.

However, the crash should also serve as a warning for Pogacar. Two years ago, he had already ruined his good form for the Tour de France with a serious crash in the spring classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where he was ultimately beaten by the Dane Jonas Vingegaard. Perhaps a first start at the Paris-Roubaix cobblestone ordeal in a few weeks is not the best idea.

Next goal Milan-Sanremo
After the spring classic Milan-Sanremo, Pogacar wants to decide whether he will also line up against former world champion Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) in the Hell of the North. He has already completed a training ride in the infamous Arenberg forest recently. Pogacar would love to win the monument in northern France. Alongside Milan-Sanremo, it is the classic that is still missing from his impressive track record.

After mastering the rare double of the Giro d'Italia and Tour last year, Pogacar wants to win the tough and hectic one-day races in the spring of 2025. His rival Vingegaard, on the other hand, is opting for a more relaxed build-up to the Tour with smaller tours such as Paris-Nice.

However, concentrating on just one major highlight is not Pogacar's thing, who took an impressive 25 victories last year. He has long since followed in the footsteps of Eddy Merckx. A superhuman rider? "When he's dead, they'll have to cut him open and see," said Pidcock jokingly. The Olympic mountain bike champion, who won the Strade Bianche in 2023, complained that he was probably in his best form and yet it wasn't enough to keep up.