After nearly two months away from competition following his Tour de France win, Tadej Pogačar got back to racing on Friday in Quebec. Two days later, he got back to his winning ways in Montréal.
In his second career appearance at the GP Montréal, a race he won back in 2022, Pogačar stormed to another victory after soloing clear of the field on the penultimate lap of the hilly urban circuit. It was a show of form and dominance amid a strong field at a WorldTour event, and with the world championships in Switzerland looming, it’s hard not to see Sunday as a potential sign of things to come.
“This was great preparation, a motivational boost for two weeks ahead,” Pogačar said. “I can’t wait for Zurich.”
Pogačar’s Canadian sojourn started with an entertaining but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to get away with a small group in the finale of Friday’s GP Québec. At the GP Montréal, whose course is more favorable to climbers, he decided to go solo from much further out – around 23 km from the finish. Nothing about it was all that surprising; he has won Strade Bianche and Liège-Bastogne-Liège that way this year already, and as has so often been the case, his big move on Sunday was teed up by the hard work of UAE’s Rafał Majka.
In short, you could see this one coming – but no one was able to follow his move on the Côte Camillien-Houde when it inevitably happened. Big names like Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and others tried but were unable to chase Pogačar down, and he ultimately finished with a healthy gap to the field.
Runner-up Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) arrived 24 seconds later, but only after Pogačar had slowed down to soak it all in on the finishing straight and celebrate his win with the fans, while Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) won the sprint for third 40 seconds back.
“We did it exactly how we wanted to do it,” Pogačar said of his long-range strike.
Will he and Slovenia have a similar tactic in mind for the next big target on his program?
Pogačar will attempt to secure the elusive Triple Crown of winning the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France, and the world championships all in the same season, on September 29. Only two male riders have managed that feat before: Eddy Merckx in 1974, and Stephen Roche in 1987 (Annemiek van Vleuten achieved the women’s Triple Crown in 2022).
Pogačar’s attempt at the Triple Crown will come on a course that does bear some similarity to the one he bossed on Sunday. The 273.9 km men’s road race at Zurich Worlds will be a bit longer than the 209.1 km GP Montréal, but it is a generally hilly course, and the main challenge on the Zurich circuit is the Witikon climb, which happens to have some similar metrics to the Côte Camillien-Houde.
The final ascent of the Witikon will come some 20 km from the finish line – a similar distance to the finish as his attack on the penultimate ascent of the Côte Camillien-Houde on Sunday.
One major difference in Switzerland will be his team – he will ride for Slovenia at Worlds instead of his UAE trade team. As such, Pogačar will have to face a hot Marc Hirschi – who will have the home crowd on his side – instead of being able to work with him like he would do in any other race on the calendar. He won’t have the likes of Majka (Poland) to set him up either.
Pogačar will, however, be joined by his talented UAE teammate and compatriot Domen Novak, as well as recent Vuelta winner Primož Roglič, a heavy hitter in his own right, especially in hilly one-day races. If those two riders who are so often rivals can collaborate in pursuit of the same goal, it is hard to see anyone standing in the way of the rider who was so dominant against WorldTour talent in Montréal.
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