Nat Bromhead
Tadej Pogačar has yet again showcased his brilliance, the Slovenian clinching victory at Liege-Bastogne-Liege with a daring attack from the Redoute, 34.8 km from the finish.
Crossing the finish line in Liege, he boasted a commanding lead of 1 minute and 39 seconds over Romain Bardet with Mathieu Van der Poel just behind in third.
Pogacar’s 70th career win, the 2024 LBL was his 6th Monument title, including two victories at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, one at the Tour of Flanders, and three at Lombardia.
“I’m full of emotions,” said Pogacar, who has only raced for 10 days this year.
“It was a miserable day from the start but we kept pushing hard with the team making a good pace and we kept ourselves a little bit warmer.”
“It has been quite emotional for me riding the whole day on the bike,” he continued, “I was thinking about two years ago, I did not participate in the race because my girlfriend Urksa’s mother died and about last year when I crashed.”
“The last two years in this race were really difficult for me and I’m happy I could win again this beautiful competition, riding with Urska’s mother in my mind.”
Pogacar said in last year’s LBL he focused on saving energy, “this year I had in my mind to be in safe positions and with the team.”
“We rode hard on the climbs until the Redoute where we did exactly what we planned to do and from then it was only suffering to the finish.”
2024 Liege-Bastogne-Liege results
1. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) 6h13:48
2. Romain Bardet (Team DSM-firmenich) +1:39
3. Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceunink) +2:02
