His duel with the Belgian Remco Evenepoel was announced, and awaited by cycling enthusiasts. But the dean of the classics always has surprises in store, and on Sunday April 23, Tadej Pogacar, in turn, paid the price. Big favorite of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, after successively winning the Amstel Gold Race and the Flèche wallonne, the Slovenian of UAE Team Emirates was forced to retire in the third Ardennes classic.
A fall, which occurred at the 85th kilometer (out of the 258.5 in the race) forced the double winner of the Tour de France (2020 and 2021) to abandon. On Twitter, his team clarified that their leader was “injured in the wrist and was on his way to the hospital, to be examined”.
No hat-trick in the Ardonnaise classics, therefore, for the Slovenian rider, who has been accumulating victories since the start of the season with a huge appetite. In eighteen days of racing until Sunday, Pogacar raised his arms twelve times, and on all types of terrain. So much so that the Belgian Philippe Gilbert – one of the only two riders with the Italian Davide Rebellin (2006) to have achieved the “Ardennes triple” (in 2011) – assured, in March: “We can start comparing Pogacar to Eddy Merckx. »
To the point that many teams assume – more or less half-heartedly – ??that playing for first place in a race where the Slovenian starts was now unplayable. “I said that I would be happy to finish second behind Pogacar, which is apart, thus exposed this week the Dane Mattias Skjelmose (Trek-Segafredo), second in the Amstel Gold Race. He may be the greatest runner of all time. You only see one like that in a century. »
Evenepoel and favourite
But the whole peloton did not wave the white flag, starting with Remco Evenepoel. Reigning world champion and winner last year of the dean of the classics, the Belgian from Soudal-Quick-Step did not hide his “eagerness to find Tadej Pogacar”, whom he has not met in the race since the World’s Championships. With the abandonment of the last second of the Tour de France, on the roads which had been fatal to Julian Alaphilippe last year – initiating a dark year for the Frenchman from the Soudal-Quick-Step –, Evenepoel becomes the great favorite of Liège -Bastogne-Liège.
“One day we will have to succeed in beating [Tadej Pogacar]”, assured the French leader of Groupama-FDJ, David Gaudu, in March, after finishing second in Paris-Nice, behind a relentless Pogacar. It will not be this Sunday, where the peloton now has free rein, after the abandonment of the leader of UAE Team Emirates.
