Tadej Pogacar made his debut at Il Lombardia in 2021, where he took a strong win against Fausto Masnada in Bergamo. In 2022 he found himself in a similar situation, taking another win in a two-up sprint, this time against Enric Mas.
“I can't put into words how grateful I am to the team that rode so great for me. To finish it then, in the last race of the season, is great," Pogacar sad in a post-race interview. UAE Team Emirates came with a strong team into the final monument of the season, and in anticipation of Civiglio, the team put in a lot of work to create fatigue inside the peloton.
The likes of João Almeida and Marc Hirschi put in a lot of work before San Fermo della Bataglia, and with everything controlled, in the penultimate climb, Davide Formolo set a blistering pace that split the main group into just a few riders. Pogacar attacked in the first half of Civiglio, just as he had planned.
“The race went exactly as we wanted. I tried to attack on the Civiglio, but Mas was clearly on the same level uphill as I was," he said. "We tried to work together until the final, so it went perfectly." What followed however was a string of attacks from the Spaniard, both in Civiglio and San Fermo della Bataglia. Albeit explosive, the attacks failed to dislodge the Slovenian.
Into a sprint the results seemed certain, and although Enric Mas put on a good fight, Pogacar comfortably crossed the line first to take his second win in two attempts at the Italian monumenent.
"I just came back from Australia in the Giro dell'Emilia. Since then I have started to feel better every day," he said, regarding the possible doubts he had after being defeated earlier in the week. "I already felt really good in the Tre Valli Varesine, so I knew I would have good legs today.”
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