Phenomenal Pogacar, no pressure for Evenepoel, great promise for Nys - Marc Sergeant weighs in on final monument of the spring

Liège-Bastogne-Liège, monument number 4 of the season, has delivered a finale where the man to beat Tadej Pogacar had no struggle to create the race-winning difference. He and Remco Evenepoel are the riders most talked about by pundits all-around after the end of the race.

"He just wanted to weigh things up. Just to see what the rest would do if he moved. Only the rest was already so cooked that they no longer had an answer," Marc Sergeant wrote in a column for Het Nieuwsblad regarding Pogacar.

"And that is the great merit of UAE. That team marches so well, it makes it so easy for Pogacar: phenomenal. That is Pogacar's great asset: not only his own immense qualities but really in every situation, at every moment he has a teammate he can fall back on".

The Slovenian took a comfortable win, not being matched when he attacked - with the same being said of the following kilometers. Absence in the fight for victory was Remco Evenepoel, who didn't have his best climbing legs on the day, and at Roche-aux-Faucons couldn't keep up with the main group anymore. However Sergeant is not critical of the Olympic Champion.

"If I were Evenepoel, I wouldn't worry too much. Just give yourself some more time. If he made a mistake in the past two weeks, it was only that he himself went along with the excessively high expectations that arose after his victory in the Brabantse Pijl. While it is almost logical that a rider who has been on the sidelines for so long will come up against himself at some point," he argues. However Sergeant is specially excited with Lidl-Trek's new Belgian talent Thibau Nys who has finished 12th at Amstel Gold Race, 8th at Flèche Wallonne and finally 5th in Liège.

"Hats off to Thibau Nys. Hats off to Lidl-Trek. These days, youngsters are thrown to the lions very quickly, often right away in the biggest races. Which sometimes leads to disappointments among the boys. Lidl-Trek has brought Nys in carefully," the pundit and former manager of Lotto belives.

"First winning a stage in Hungary - a race that we in Flanders hardly look at. Then Romandie - much tougher. Then the Tour de Suisse - even tougher. They have built it up in such a way that Nys could immediately achieve three great results in his first Ardennes triptych".

Sergeant is very optimistic for Nys' chances later at the Tour de France, and to contest for victories in the Ardennes in future years: "Soon in the Tour, where he should certainly be capable of winning a stage. But also in the longer term in a Monument like Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Nys is not yet a match for this Pogacar, but this scenario will not repeat itself every year. Let Nys go to the finish line in a few years in a group with four or five top riders, and with his speed he is definitely a candidate for the winner".