Dhe first act is over, the classic season in cycling is over. It ended at Liège-Bastogne-Liège with a spectacular solo victory for Belgian world champion Remco Evenepoel. And with a nasty fall of Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar on a high-speed descent. This is how the expected duel between the two stars turned out.
Evenepoel drove the last 29 kilometers relaxed towards the finish. No opponent in sight for him. He rolled the last 300 meters in a jubilant pose, celebrated by the Belgian fans. A few hours later, Pogacar also gave the victory sign with a big smile, but instead of sitting on the bike he was in the back seat of a team car, his left hand bandaged and his fingers still red from disinfectant.
Successful operation at Pogacar
The captain of the UAE team was taken to the hospital in Genk after his fall and underwent surgery there. The photo from the car was posted by team doctor Adrian Rotunno, along with a first medical bulletin. Pogacar suffered fractures of the scaphoid and lunate bone in his wrist. The necessary operation was successful. Pogacar will travel home immediately to start rehabilitation. It would probably last five to six weeks, with training on the roller being possible in the near future.
So the fall should mess up Pogacar’s season planning, but not seriously disrupt his preparation for the highlight of the season, the Tour de France. To date, as a professional, he had never had to give up a race because of a fall. This time, too, he had tried to drive on, but soon had to realize that this was not possible.
Evenepoel, who will not start in the Tour this year but in the Giro d’Italia, put the final exclamation point behind the classic spring campaign, which all in all offered a spectacle like it hadn’t been for a long time. The classic season had started at Milan-Sanremo with the brute victory of Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel, who then also prevailed against his eternal competitor Wout van Aert at Paris-Roubaix.
The Tour of Flanders then went to Pogacar in a brilliant way, who also won the Amstel Gold Race and the Walloon Arrow and thus already had twelve victories in his annual account before the start of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. He was denied number thirteen in the duel with Evenepoel – and the fans a long-awaited showdown between two drivers who shaped the classic season together with van der Poel. Add in van Aert and you have four pros who were well ahead of the rest of the field.
The example of the British star Thomas Pidcock, who has already been world champion in cross-country skiing, Olympic champion with mountain bikes and stage winner in Alpe d’Huez in the Tour, shows how far riders like Evenepoel are ahead of the competition. Evenepoel easily let him stand as the last opponent in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The gap has widened. The superstars only compete with each other. The rest is stuffage – at least in spring.
