Tadej Pogačar has recognised that his devastatingly successful performance in the Volta a Catalunya this week, with four stage wins out of a possible seven and the race’s biggest victory margin in 64 years, shows that he is well on track for the summer’s main challenges of the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France.
In one of his most dominating performances in a week-long stage race to date, en route to his outright triumph, Pogačar claimed victories on all three summit finishes and the final reduced bunch sprint victory in Montjuïc Park on Sunday.
He’s the first rider to win four stages of the Volta since Mario Cipollini captured the same number in the 1998 race – and barring a minor miscalculation in the opening stage at San Feliu, that could have gone Pogačar’s way as well.
His overall winning margin of 3:41, boosted by another 10-second bonus with first place in the final dash for the line in Barcelona sets the bar even higher historically. It is the biggest since Catalan allrounder Miguel Poblet beat his Ferrys’ teammates Jose Pérez Frances and Emilio Cruz to the top spot in 1960 with an advantage of 3:51.
On the final podium, Pogačar was flanked by Mikel Landa, who is enjoying one of his best-ever season starts, and an Egan Bernal who has taken another key step back towards his former levels with third. But Pogačar simply remains at the summit, yet again.
“This whole week has meant a lot to me, I had a rough half-season last year,” said Pogačar referring to his crash in last year’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège and subsequent recovery. “To start the season like this is really fantastic.
“This victory gives me a lot of confidence and I can see my shape is good. I’m really on a good path for the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France.”
Often a winner from solo breaks, as was the case with his first three stages, Pogačar rounded out his first GC victory since Paris-Nice last year with his first reduced bunch sprint win since he outpowered Sergio Higuita and Alejandro in an Italian autumn Classic, the Tre Valle Varesine, in October 2022.
But as he explained his option for one last triumph – which also set the seal on his victories in the mountains and points ranking to boot – was only one card of several UAE had to play.
“Today was a different one, we tried with Marc Soler but in my opinion, he went too early. He decided to attack on the first lap but…
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