Tadej Pogačar confirms his dominance in the Tour of Catalonia with another stage win

Slovenian Tadej Pogačar confirmed his absolute dominance with his fourth stage victory in the WorldTour Tour of Catalonia and added another notch to his collection of successes.

Pogačar dominated four of the seven stages

the 25-year-old Slovenian finished a pleasing second in the opening stage in a spurt. He then reigned supreme in all the mountain tests, dominating stages two, three and six after solo breakaways. In Sunday’s 145.3km stage, he won the final spurt.

He’s now reached 69 wins since 2019, and we’re not really talking about a spurter. We’re talking about a cyclist who is starting to look strikingly like the legend Eddy Merckx.

Pogačar rules the hills. Brilliantly riding the greatest classics that are cycling’s monuments. But now he’s also showing his strength in the final spurts.

The fan-favourite cyclist has essentially replaced Peter Sagan, who was also popular for the showman he was. He was very popular all over the world.

Pogačar always goes for the win. In the vast majority of cases he succeeds and still gives his rivals a huge gap.

After his triumph on Sunday, Tadej Pogačar is in a great mood for the upcoming Giro D’Italia, which he obviously intends to win. The Slovenian dominated the race right from stage two, finishing a close second in stage one. In the second stage he was already donning the race leader’s jersey. In the following third stage he further increased his lead after a breakaway.

He finished 25th and 31st in stages four and five, as these were sprinters’ stages. In the sixth stage he struck again and increased his lead again, and in the seventh stage he confirmed his dominance as he also dominated the spurt. He won the overall classification by more than 3 and a half minutes ahead of home rider Mikel Landa and more than 5 minutes ahead of Colombian Egan Bernal.

For the rest of the peloton, it was just a battle for second place

The whole race was a fight for second place for the other riders. Pogačar “ticked off” another WorldTour race, which he dominated. He already has triumphs in Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico. In the coming seasons he wants to dominate the Tour of Romandie, Tour of Switzerland, Tour of the Basque Country and Critérium du Daphiné.

He already has three monuments in his collection. Around Flanders, Lutych – Batogne – Lutych and Around Lombardy. He only misses victories on the Paris-Roubaix and Milan-San Remo routes. So far, only three cyclists have managed to win on all these monuments.

Tour of Catalonia – Stage 7 (145.3 km)

1. Tadej Pogačar (Slovi./UAE Emirates) 3:15:23
2. Dorian Godon (Fr./Decathlon – AG2R) -57
3. Guillaume Martin (Fr./Cofidis) all same time
45. Jan Hirt (CZ/Soudal Quick- Step) -34

Final standings:

1. Tadej Pogačar 28:21:29
2. Mikel Landa -3:41
3. Egan Bernal -5:03
20. Jan Hirt -14:07

Source: UCI, Tour of Catalonia