Tadej Pogacar wins Volta a Catalunya's queen stage with fearless 30-kilometer solo attack
Cycling
There were little questions on whether Tadej Pogacar could win his third mountain stage out of three at the Volta a Catalunya, and the race leader comfortably sealed the deal. Despite having a massive lead over the rest, the Slovenian soloed into victory with an attack 30 kilometers away from the finish.
A wild day of racing on the menu, it started off with a tough fight to form the day's breakaway. Not many riders had the legs to be up there in the moves, ultimately Bauke Mollema and Hugh Carthy formed the front group which never truly got too much of a gap.
The gruesome climb of the Col du Pradell was going to be a crucial moment in the day, and although the pace was relatively comfortable or most of the climb, both breakaway riders were caught before the toughest part of the climb; and there the pace of UAE Team Emirates shred the peloton to bits.
Visma took to the front briefly but dropped their own leader Sepp Kuss in the process. 12 riders went over the summit; Marc Soler kept pushing the pace as the groups organized behind to form some sort of chase. However on the penultimate categorized climb of the day there was no stabilizing.
Pogacar started the day with over two minutes of lead but decided to still attack. Not only did he attack, but he dropped the competition once again and rode away by himself off the front. What followed was a 30-kilometer solo move through the difficult climbs where he kept expanding his gap. Pogacar rode to another very impressive victory where he cements the overall win of the Catalan race.
Landa managed to get a gap over the rest when Pogacar attacked. Egan Bernal made a move from the chasing group at the top of the climb and connected to the front in the descent. The duo worked together to take time on the rest of the competition, whilst riders arrived behind in small groups, with big gaps created on the day.
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- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024