No race is boring when Tadej Pogacar participates. It has not been this Saturday Milan-San Remo, the enormous Italian ‘classicissima’, and neither will the Volta starting Monday. Because he runs with the word ‘offensive’ written in his mind, because he seeks to win, because he never gives up and because he is worth a fortune, even if in the end it is someone else who takes the victory; in this case, Jasper Philipsen who can be considered, with minimal margin of error, the best sprinter today and who had the invaluable help of Mathieu van der Poel to win.
Cycling, unlike other sports, is the specialty where the nationality of the protagonist is least important. A runner is loved for the art he exhibits on his bike more than for the flag he wears on his bib number. Most know that, starting July 1, the name of the winner of the Tour will mainly come from the pairing of Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. They are different but similar. However, both are equally enjoyable. Vingegaard may be more cerebral than Pogacar, who often becomes a blessed madman, almost a beloved madman on the bike, who is exhibited everywhere, who when the cycling course begins, at the beginning of March, escapes alone 80 kilometers from Siena and who wins the Strade Bianche, between unpaved sections, with the ease of a happy citizen tasting a beer or wine on a terrace during a spring sunset. And the same one that puts everyone in single file in Milan-San Remo, although he finishes in third position behind The Philips and from the Australian Michael Matthews.
Pogacar He was fifth in 2022, fourth in 2023 and now third. So it is easy to guess what will happen next year, because he has set his sights on winning the ‘classicissima’ even though it is a race that certainly does not present the best script for him. Because, as happened this Saturday, he becomes the cyclist who orders his team, the UAE, to start the destruction of the race during the ascent to The Cypress, 28 kilometers from the finish line, a place where the peloton is already shattered. And Pogacar was also the only cyclist, already in the Poggio, at the gates of San Remo, who decided to attack. And on two occasions. If in 2022 and 2023 he tried the demarraje at the beginning of the final climb, this time he waited until the last kilometer to find the only answer from Mathieu van der Poel, winner last year, and who, unlike the Slovenian phenomenon, was competing in the Try with your back covered.
Having passed the Poggio, with only 5.5 kilometers to go, with barely a dozen cyclists with a chance of victory, he knew Pogacar that this year he was not going to achieve victory either, against a Van der Poelat the same time attentive and calm because if he didn’t win, his Alpecin teammate would. The Philips, whom he decided to help without the rings falling off, although the Slovenian star maintained suspense until the finish line because, smelling his salt shaker, he even dared to challenge the best in the world in the specialty for victory. So now let’s rub our hands and wait for another work of art from Pogacar on the Catalan route with a Volta of many decibels.
2024-03-16 22:28:43
#sprinter #world #takes #MilanSan #Remo
