Matej Mohoric's interesting story on Pogacar: "Don’t risk your life and your Tour de France by following me down the Poggio descent"
Cycling
Matej Mohoric is a daredevil descender and in 2022, he won Milano-Sanremo with a downhill attack that very few could even dream of executing. On that day, the Bahrain - Victorious rode a race to perfection and won in the exact way he envisioned. Before he did, he warned Tadej Pogacar not to risk his life trying to follow him down the Poggio di Sanremo.
"It was all or nothing. I knew I had just one chance. I saved that chance for the Poggio. Tadej Pogacar attacked like a madman there, but there was a headwind. I thought: my god, he’s so strong. If I didn’t win this year, it would be over for me," Mohoric admitted in words to CyclingWeekly's podcast.
In that year, Mohoric's compatriot began his search to win the first momument of the season, and his string of attacks demolished the group. As usual, Sanremo becomes an extremely tactical and tense race towards it's finale, but in this scenario it was Mohoric who managed to capitalize on it.
After regaining some positions after the summit of the climb, Mohoric commited to not taking a rest, but instead attack as early as he could in the descent. His bike handling skills were put on full display on this day, and he managed to create a gap that would never again be closed by his rivals.
"I reached the top in fourth or fifth place, about three seconds behind. I knew that was my moment to strike. I thought: I don’t care anymore. Tadej, Wout van Aert, and Mathieu van der Poel were looking at each other, and I seized the perfect moment to pass them," he describes. "Tadej was at the front, and I had been talking to him a lot during the race".
"He was curious about my dropper post, and I told him: ‘Tadej, listen to me. You’re a good friend of mine, so don’t risk your life and your Tour de France by following me down the Poggio descent. You know I’m crazy, so just stay safe'," the Slovenian recalls.
"He was at the front at that moment, and I think he hesitated for just a second—which was just enough for me," the 30-year old looks back. It has definitely earned him the biggest victory of his career. Mohoric admits however that nowadays, he only takes these risks when he believes it truly matters in words to CyclingUpToDate earlier in the winter, and looks to avoid them as much as possible during regular races.
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Nice that he warned him coz he almost died and Pog might very well have if he’d tried but it was a spectacular genial move in a fascinating edition. MSR is probably the most interesting one-day race resultswise. It’s 20 years ago someone last win it twice and ironically Pog has never (so far) won going over the Poggio.
Totally agree! it's the most unpredictable Classic race because is very easy, then, paradoxically, is very difficult for the strongest rider like Pogacar because they can't do selection: anyone can win it. In my opinion, the final 15 minutes are the most electrifying of the entire season.
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