The 26-year-old Slovenian is the third rider in history to achieve the Giro-Tour de France-Mondial triple after Eddy Merckx and Stephen Roche.
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Tadej Pogacar is insatiable and doesn’t intend to stop there. He showed it to his opponents on Sunday September 29, when 100 kilometers from the finish of the Cycling Worlds, he attacked his main rivals in the peloton. Some members of the breakaway – including the Frenchman Pavel Sivakov – tried to hang on, without success. This first world title and the rainbow jersey that goes with it crown a perfect season for the Slovenian.
Road race (M): Tadej Pogacar world champion for the first time as boss
What a race from Tadej Pogacar! The Slovenian attacked 100 kilometers from the finish to establish himself as boss in Zurich and win the rainbow jersey for the first time in his career. Ben O’Connor gets the silver medal and Mathieu van der Poel completes the podium.
Pogacar’s irresistible rise is visible in one number, which shows how stratospheric his 2024 season is, despite not racing the Vuelta or the Olympics. This is his number of victories in World Tour races: 23, including the Worlds. This is more than all the teams on the circuit, except his team, UAE Team Emirates, who won 40 in all, more than half thanks to him. In total, the 26-year-old rider has 86 professional victories. By winning on Sunday, he also joined the very exclusive club of riders – there are only three, with Eddy Merckx and Stephen Roche – to have won the Giro, the Tour de France and the Worlds in the same season.
“I don’t know what was going through my headhe explained, when asked about this senseless attack 100 kilometers from the finish line. This was obviously not the plan planned at the start, but the race opened up quickly, with a dangerous breakaway ahead. Maybe it was stupid of me. Fortunately I got there. I can’t believe what just happened.” This is also what makes the beauty of Pogacar’s season. Lots of spontaneity, sometimes enough to make you tear your hair out, and moments of brilliance, like this crazy victory on the Beille plateau, during the 14th stage of the Tour de France, or this lightning ascent, which nailed Matteo Jorgenson on site, during the 19th stage, towards Isola 2000.
Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Giro, Tour de France, Tour de Catalunya, Strade bianche, Grand Prix de Montréal… Apart from Milan-San Remo, where he finished 3rd, and the Grand Prix de Québec (7th), none race in which he took part was no match for Tadej Pogacar this year. His six stage successes in the Tour de France allowed him to reach 26 victories in the three major Tours (six in the Giro, 17 in the Tour de France and three in the Vuelta). Still far from Eddy Merckx and his 64 successes, but, at 26, the Slovenian has made a resounding entry into the top 10.
Paris-Roubaix, Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Spain and an Olympic title (he had withdrawn from the Paris Games) are the last major races missing from the hunting list of the one who aspires to become the greatest of all the time. But first, Pogacar can complete his historic season on October 12 with the Tour of Lombardy, of which he is the triple defending champion.