Tadej Pogačar continued to stake his claim as one of the greatest riders of all time as he pulled off an audacious 51km solo attack to win a maiden rainbow jersey at the World Championships road race.
The Slovenian became the first male rider since Stephen Roche in 1987 and just the third ever, after Roche and Eddy Merckx, to win the Triple Crown of Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and World Championships in the same year, capping off a glorious year with a nail-biting victory in Zurich.
Pogačar looked in disbelief as he crossed the line at the magnitude of his achievement, 100km after launching his first attack and after 51km alone in front on a gruelling Alpine course. His was the longest victorious solo ride at a World Championships since 1971.
The Slovenian has become infamous for long-range solos to victory, but this was a huge ask even for him. He took advantage of the punishing double-digit gradients on the Zürichbergstrasse to bridge across to the early breakaway - which included team-mate Jan Tratnik - just before the 100km to go mark, driving the pace on the front before making his decisive move with 51km remaining.
With 30km left to race the Slovenian looked to have the race under control, but as the kilometres ticked the attritional racing appeared to take its toll and his advantage, too, ebbed away, hovering around 40 seconds and setting up a thrilling finale.
But the gap was insurmountable in the final few kilometres and Pogačar sat up, covered his face in disbelief, and punched the air in delight as he crossed the line, hugging and celebrating with his team staff and partner Urška Žigart as the magnitude of his incredible achievement began to sink in.
Australia's Ben O'Connor broke away from the chasing group to power to second place, only 35 seconds behind, to bring the curtain down on another excellent season for the Vuelta runner-up.
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Defending champion Mathieu van der Poel outsprinted the remnants of the elite chasing group for bronze, with Remco Evenepoel, the 2022 champion and other major favourite, settling for fifth.
The new rainbow jersey appeared shell-shocked and emotional speaking after the race, possibly one of the most gruelling of his already superb career.
“I don’t know [how it feels to win], I cannot believe what just happened. After this kind of season I put a lot of pressure on myself for today, I had pressure from myself and the team. We came here for the victory.
“The race unfolded pretty quick, there was a dangerous breakaway in the front. I maybe did a stupid attack but luckily Jan [Tratnik] was there with me and I never gave up until the final. It’s incredible, I can't believe what just happened.
Asked whether the 100km attack had been planned, he said, “No, of course not. We had planned to keep the race under control, but the race went quite early and I don’t know what I was thinking, I just went. Luckily I made it but it was so tough.
“For sure [it means a lot to win the world title]. After many years fighting for the Tour de France and all the races I never had the World Championships as a clear goal. This year everything went smooth already and after a perfect season it was a really big goal to win the World Championships.
"I can’t believe it happened. I have to thank all the team – without them it wouldn’t be possible. I’m super proud of the national team. Let’s go!”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
HOW IT UNFOLDED
Billed as one of the toughest Worlds routes in recent times, today’s ordeal was compared to Liège-Bastogne-Liège due to its similar length – 273.9km in total – and gruelling elevation gain of 4,470m.
The race began northwest of Zurich in Winterthur, with an opening northerly Alpine loop to warm up the legs before turning south and incorporating three short but steep climbs. From there the riders would cross the finish line along Lake Zurich and tackle seven 26.8km laps, featuring a nasty opening ramp and several climbs on undulating terrain all the way to the finish.
Following a minute’s silence in honour of young Swiss rider Muriel Furrer, who was killed following a crash in Thursday’s junior women’s race, the riders rolled out in Winterthur for 4.7km of neutralised start. Far from the teeth-chattering cold and lashing rain of the women’s race on Saturday, it was a dry, fresh autumnal morning in Switzerland, with the sun peeking out and temperature a more pleasant 14 degrees.
There were several early moves as plenty of teams aimed to get some time in the sun, with the peloton strung out on the long, sweeping highways between Winterthur and Zurich, but each was cancelled out by other nations marking moves. Predictions of a hard start to the race were immediately proven correct as the riders rattled along at speed.
With 40km on the clock a breakaway stuck. Sylvain Dillier (Switzerland), Piotr Pękala (Poland), and Luc Wirtgen (Luxembourg) escaped after around 30km on the sloping run-in to the short, sharp Kyburg climb. Their numbers swelled first by the arrivals of Tobias Foss (Norway) and Rui Oliveira (Portugal) and then the chasing trio of Simon Geschke (Germany), Markus Pajur (Estonia) and Roberto Carlos Gonzalez (Panama), who made contact on the steepest, 14.4% section of the 1.3km climb. It was the worst time to join for Pajur and Gonzalez, who immediately slipped back and were quickly marooned in no-man’s land between the break and the bunch, in a sign of how intense the racing had already been.
Pello Bilbao, an outsider for the rainbow jersey, crashed on the outskirts of Schwerzenbach as the riders looped towards Zurich. The Spaniard appeared to be in some pain but sent his attendant team-mates on ahead and got back to his feet, but former world champion Julian Alaphilippe was not so lucky.
The Frenchman had been another dark horse for victory after taking bronze at the recent GP Montreal, but his excellent season came to a frustrating end on the approach to the Zurich circuit. Cameras did not pick up the incident but it was announced that he had suffered a dislocated shoulder in a crash and was forced to withdraw from contention. Mattias Skjelmose (Denmark) was another casualty, having felt an apparently innocuous twinge in his back on the morning of the race which ultimately put him in too much pain to continue, while Spain’s Mikel Landa also withdrew before the halfway mark.
As the 90km prelude to the Zurich section came to an end the peloton looked more relaxed, conscious of the incredibly long way still to go – Michael Matthews was even spotted eating out of a Tupperware with a fork mid-pedal stroke as the pace slowed. The breakaway had five minutes’ advantage as they swung onto the first of seven city circuits, joining the loop at the forested Schmalzgruebstrasse climb. The route then followed its technical descent down to the finish line, where Dillier crossed first to roars of approval from the home crowd, before swinging back uphill for the start of the circuit proper.
Slovenia led the peloton onto the Zürichbergstrasse, a punchy 800m ramp maxing out at 15.9%, and the pace was back to relentless once more. Belgium’s diesel engine Victor Campenaerts upped the ante further, cutting the breakaway’s lead to 3:22 by the next crossing of the finish line, when Pajur and Gonzalez were put out of their misery.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
CASTRILLO AND VINE IGNITE THE RACE
The pace continued to stay high, but the peloton largely rolled along without issues until 130km to go. The drama really began with a sudden uphill acceleration by double Vuelta stage winner Pablo Castrillo, riding for a depleted Spanish team. Like at the Vuelta he was initially left unmarked before a furious Slovenian chase ensued, and while he was brought back, the race exploded. Jay Vine (Australia) counter-attacked, forming a 10-strong group of riders who immediately put daylight between themselves and the peloton.
Laurens De Plus (Belgium), Jan Tratnik (Slovenia), Mattia Cattaneo (Italy), Magnus Cort (Denmark), Pavel Sivakov (France), Stephen Williams (Great Britain), Kevin Vermaerke (USA), Johannes Staune-Mittet (Norway) and Florian Lipowitz (Germany) stormed up the road with Vine and soon the chasing group were breathing down the breakaway’s necks.
With Belgium and Slovenia both represented in the chasing group the two teams sat back in the bunch, trying to force the Dutch to chase, and the gap swelled to 3:20 with about 110km of road left. It was left to the USA and Latvia to take to the front on the tricky city centre section of the loop as the teams jostled for position on the narrow Zurich roads, and the gap began to drop away once more.
The chasers made the catch on the steep, wooded Zürichbergstrasse and pressed on. But behind them Domen Novak upped the tempo, hauling the peloton up the climb for Pogačar, who was sitting ominously high up in the bunch and looking as relaxed as ever.
Attacks continued on the longer, 1.9km Witikon climb, but with just over 100km to go, it was time for the Pogačar show to begin.
POGAČAR CAUSES PANIC
The Slovenian powered up the field from about four riders back, with only Quinn Simmons (USA) and Italy’s Andrea Bagioli able to follow his wheel, and the peloton in disarray behind. Simmons was distanced after only a few pedal strokes and Bagioli dropped away a couple of kilometres later, while Pogačar motored through the feed zone and was rapidly within a minute of the 18-strong breakaway.
Tratnik dropped back to tow Pogačar along, while Belgium returned to the front, regaining a handful of seconds on the bunch to keep within around a minute of the breakaway. The Slovenian pair made the catch on the plateau and led the breakaway onto the fifth lap, when Pogačar launched once more, splintering the group apart on the 17% Zürichbergstrasse and dropping all his companions, slowing down just enough for trade team-mate Sivakov to make contact.
With 72km to go Evenepoel launched an attack of his own, but he could not make a difference on another kicker and order was restored by defending champion Mathieu van der Poel. Another flurry of attacks followed as Evenepoel burned through team-mates and the Dutchman had a brief tilt of his own on the Wikiton slope.
Evenepoel cut a frustrated figure, gesticulating angrily at other riders for refusing to work, but he could not shake the rest of the bunch and the gap to Pogačar refused to budge. With Evenepoel stuck between a rock and a hard place it was advantage Pogačar as he and Sivakov flew over the line once more, crossing 40 seconds ahead of a chasing trio of Ben Healy (Ireland), Oscar Onley (Great Britain), and Toms Skujinš (Latvia), with Evenepoel leading the peloton just 1:01 back.
The Zürichbergstrasse claimed another victim as Sivakov dropped off Pogačar’s wheel: 51km from the finish, it was time for Pogačar to go solo. Healy and Skujinš pursued him doggedly but the Slovenian still had a minute on the chasing duo and 1:26 on the bunch as he started the final lap.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
RAINBOW JERSEY GOES DOWN TO THE WIRE
Behind, home favourite Hirschi sent the crowd wild as he pulled away on the Zürichbergstrasse climb, while Evenepoel, Bardet, Spain and the Netherlands gave chase and Skujinš failed to drop Healy with an acceleration of his own. Those moves combined to shave down the deficit to Pogačar for the first time, setting up a nervy finale to the rainbow jersey race as Healy and Skujinš moved within 47 seconds of him.
Into the final 20km the gap was eroded further as Pogačar looked to tire, with Enric Mas, Hirschi, Van der Poel, Evenepoel, and Ben O’Connor making contact with the chasing duo. Despite the strength of the chasing group Pogačar was helped by bickering and attacks behind him: Healy launched again as they approached the final 3km, reeled in by Evenepoel, with the cameras panning to a nervous-looking Slovenian delegation at the finish as Pogačar rocked and rolled towards the line.
Those nerves proved unfounded as Pogačar clung on and none of the many attacks from the chasing group could bring him back, leaving the Slovenian to celebrate his new Triple Crown and a first rainbow jersey for the cycling powerhouse nation.
O’Connor was best of the rest, with daylight between him in second and the sprint for bronze. Skujinš opened up the sprint but Van der Poel passed him for third, 58 seconds behind Pogačar, with the Latvian fourth, Evenepoel fifth, and Hirschi the best-placed home rider in sixth. But the day belonged to Pogačar, who wrote himself into the history books once more with yet another supreme performance.
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