'I was fighting with myself' - Pogacar without peer in Worlds solo

Déjà vu all over again. When Tadej Pogačar attacked from distance at the World Championships in Kigali, he hoped for company, but he quickly found himself alone. No matter, the Slovenian proceeded to cruise to his second successive rainbow jersey. 

Pogačar’s winning move took shape with a typical, seated acceleration on the climb of Mont Kigali with 104km to go. His UAE Team Emirates-XRG trade teammates, Juan Ayuso (Spain) and Isaac del Toro (Mexico), joined him over the top, but neither man would last long by his side.

Ayuso was distanced on the following Mur de Kigali, while a flagging Del Toro had to relent with 66km still to race. By then, Pogačar had little option but to proceed with his attack, and he duly produced an exhibition that topped even his astonishing display in Zurich last year.

“I think the parcours was designed for this, but I was hoping a small group would form like we did with Juan and Del Toro,” Pogačar said of his long-range attack. “That was a perfect combo, I was like, ‘This is a dream to ride as far as possible as a trio,’ but Juan had a problem quite soon on the cobbles and then Del Toro had some stomach problems, I think, in the race so I was left alone quite early and I was solo like last year, just fighting with myself. I’m so happy I made it.”

The demanding circuit around Kigali was always going to produce an attritional race, but this exceeded those lofty expectations. The time gaps were from another era, with silver medallist Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) the only man to finish within two minutes of Pogačar and with a nine-minute gap to Tom Pidcock (Great Britain) in tenth.

Unlike in Zurich, when Pogačar seemed to flag slightly on the final laps, there was no visible sign of weakness here, and he extended his lead all the way to the finish, coming home 1:28 clear of Evenepoel and 2:16 up on bronze medallist Ben Healy (Ireland). Pogačar, however, insisted that he had harboured some doubts about his ability to last the distance.

“For sure yes, because the climbs were getting harder and harder on every lap,” he said. “And on the downhills, it wasn’t so fast, so you had to keep pedalling quite a lot, so the energy resources were going toward the end. It was on hard the final laps, so of course you doubt a bit, but you have to push through and hope for the best.”

Pogačar’s victory was his 17th of another remarkable season, in which he has become the first man to win both the Tour and Worlds in successive years. He will target a fifth straight Il Lombardia victory in two weeks’ time, and he has already banished the memory of his subdued fourth place in the Worlds time trial, when he was caught and passed by Evenepoel. The Pogačar era shows no signs of ending just yet.

“It was incredible experience,” Pogačar said of his sojourn in Rwanda. “Let’s say it was a successful week.”