"Top class work" - Reserved Tadej Pogacar makes history for several reasons after winning Il Lombardia once again

Tadej Pogacar is an history maker once again, being the first rider in history to win five consecutive editions of a monument in a row today at Il Lombardia, but also becoming the first rider to ever finish on the podium of all monuments in the same season. The UAE Team Emirates - XRG rider, in the weekends following his World and European Championship wins, has net his tenth monument victory this Saturday afternoon.

"Everybody can feel unique and everybody's on their own but to win five times in a row, every time I start it feels like this race is really suited for me," Pogacar said in a post-race interview. "But also at the same time I have such a good team around me that we could pull it off. Big thanks to all my teammates".

The presence of Quinn Simmons in the front was a minor threat to UAE with the legs that the American champion showed, but in no way did it change the team tactics, which benefited from collaboration with Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe to control and prevent all sorts of attacks before the Passo di Ganda. "Domen [Novak] did a fantastic job, then Pavel was also really impressive today. Then all the guys leading me out on the final climb and protecting me from behind... It was top class work and just impressive stuff from the teammates". 

In the final long climb of the day the task was simple and well executed. Rafal Majka (who is retiring today from the sport) and Jay Vine set a staggering pace that cut Simmons' gap in half and destroyed the peloton fully, and then even before the hardest kilometers of the climb, the rainbow jersey attacked and was never again seen by his rivals until arriving in Bergamo later on. "I always say seven years in a row 'this is my best season so far' and this is the best season so far," he concluded.