Is there anything Tadej Pogačar can’t do?
Short answer: Nope.
Pogačar came to the Volta a Catalunya for the first time in his career bent on obtaining his first GC victory of 2024, and boy, did he succeed. The Slovenian has switched up his programme a little this year with a debut Giro creeping ever closer, and after a successful short trip to Italy to start his season, he continued to show he’s on flying form in Spain, winning no less than four stages on his way to a dominant overall win.
- The uphill ramp to the finish of stage 1 saw a bit of a coup as Israel-Premier Tech’s Nick Schultz received the green light to attack near the foot, and the 29-year-old Australian was just able to hold off Pogačar’s late charge at the head of the churning peloton. Stevie Williams took third to book-end the day’s podium for Israel-Premier Tech, joining his teammate in celebrating Schultz’s third career win and first at WorldTour level. Meanwhile, Pogačar rued his missed opportunity: “I fucked it up a little bit in the final. I should have closed Nick Schultz’s gap immediately not thinking someone else would close it. But unfortunately for me, I was thinking too long.”
- The weather took a turn for the torrential on stage 2 to Vallter 2000, the pleasant sunshine on the ride inland from the coast giving way to rain and freezing temperatures on the way up the hors-catégorie climb. While Pogačar more or less played with his food on the lower slopes before surging away to create a solid lead, Mikel Landa emerged as his nearest rival finishing second 1:23 behind, while Aleksandr Vlasov added another strong performance to limit his losses from Landa to just a second.
- Stage 3 had another summit finish in store for the peloton, and after indicating best-of-the-rest status the previous day, Landa strengthened his provisional second-overall by setting off the first fireworks that sent Pogačar up the road, before racing steady to get rid of Sepp Kuss, and hold off the Bahrain-Victorious duo of Antonio Tibero and Wout Poels. By the summit, the weather significantly better that atop Vallter, Pogačar had added 48 seconds to his lead, meaning he’d take a margin of 2:27 over Landa into the coming flat finishes, Vlasov holding steady in third at a two-minute-fifty-five-second deficit. Lenny Martinez, meanwhile, continues to prove a spirited GC contention with fourth overall and a 36-second lead in the white jersey (with orange flashes) competition – in Pogačar’s first year as a graduate of the best young rider category.
- Stages 4 and 5 moved the focus over to the fast men – of which there are few at the Volta a Catalunya – the highest-profile of them being Bryan Coquard, who was eagerly hunting down only his second ever WorldTour result (out of 51 wins, only stage 4 of the 2023 Tour Down Under was at the top level of the sport). The Frenchman’s team Cofidis is also waiting for its first win of the 2024 season, the only WorldTeam still under drought conditions. However, though he was up there as ever, the 31-year-old was unable to better his younger rivals, Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) taking stage 4, with under-23 world champion Axel Laurance (Alpecin-Deceuninck) sprinting to victory the following day.
- The final weekend began with the hardest stage of the week, a 154.7-kilometre test in the southernmost Pyrenees that included five categorised climbs, the toughest of them – by far – coming just after the halfway mark. With the ill-fated two-man escape of Hugh Carthy and Bauke Mollema brought back on the lower slopes of the vicious Coll de Pradell (14.6 km at 7%; final 5.5 km 11% average), Esteban Chaves briefly acted as a carrot just in front of the wilting bunch before being hauled back. The gruelling gradients near the peak then did a fair bit of damage, but it wasn’t until the penultimate climb where the fatal blow was struck. Pogačar put the hammer down about 30 km out and would not relent until even Mikel Landa could no longer hold the pace. Within a kilometre, the race leader was alone and riding away to a third stage win, as behind him, Egan Bernal put in the performance of his post-crash career to snatch second from Landa on the line and leapfrog onto the overall podium.
- Pogačar’s lead was up to 3:31 going into the final day, when much of the peloton was desperate to enjoy the punchy Barcelona circuit and take something from the race so far so dominated by one man. The favourites began to attack one another in earnest on the penultimate ascent of the Montjuïc climb, but there was still a reduced peloton in contention on the final circuit. Five-time Catalunya stage winner Thomas De Gendt snatched a gap on the run-up to the final ascent, but the Ineos Grenadiers-led bunch spoiled his fun about 600 metres from the crest. Bora-Hansgrohe looked keen, but Stevie Williams was on electric form and his attack caused even Pogačar a little difficulty in the chase. A small group formed on the descent, but it was soon all back together for a reduced sprint – and guess what? It was Pogačar who confirmed his dominance, out-sprinting Dorian Godon and Guillaume Martin by a bike length for his fourth stage win of the week.
Brief stage-by-stage results:
- Nick Schultz (Israel-Premier Tech)
- Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates)
- Tadej Pogačar
- Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost)
- Axel Laurance (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
- Tadej Pogačar
- Tadej Pogačar
Quote of the race:
“Unfortunately, Pogačar is here, and that means victory will be really difficult.”
Mikel Landa after taking his second consecutive runner-up finish behind Pogačar on stage 3
Brief analysis:
- Pogačar has stated a new career goal: to win all seven major week-long stage races before he hangs up his wheels. With his lead very much intact, Pogačar advanced upon the final weekend of the Volta a Catalunya full of optimism and aspiration, telling media after Friday’s fast finish, “For sure, I want to tick them all off, but it’s going to be a long way because with the calendar, it’s quite difficult.” He’s already put his mark by Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, and with the Volta a Catalunya now added to the tally, all that remains are the Tours de Romandie and Suisse, Itzulia Basque Country and the Critérium du Dauphiné, which remarkably the two-time Tour winner has not targeted since finishing fourth in 2020, when he was but a whippersnapper, multiple Vuelta stage winner and Tour of California champion. Since his first Tour de France win later that summer, Pogačar has chosen his home tour in Slovenia as a warm-up for the French Grand Tour, but though he’s not slated to start any of the remaining four stage races this season, it sounds like the future has even more programme shakeups in store for the soon-to-be Giro debutant.
- While Pogačar was once again the standout performer of the race, Egan Bernal continues to progress two years after his near career-ending crash, climbing to his best result to date (since then) on stage 6 where he beat Landa to second just under a minute behind Pogačar, which propelled the Colombian onto the overall podium at a WorldTour race for the first time since his magnificent 2021 Giro d’Italia title. Next stop, victory.
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