Tadej Bujar (Team Emirates) concluded his spring season with a historic win in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which he dedicated to the mother of his fiancée, Urska Ziegart, who passed away before the 2022 race.
The Slovenian was the favorite for the 2022 edition of the race but announced he would not be running in the race on the eve of the race following tragic personal news. In his post-race interview following his 2024 win, he explained how important the influence was to him.
“It was very emotional for me all day riding the bike, thinking about Orska's mother two years ago, and we had to go home,” Pogacar said in a live radio interview after the race.
“I was driving for Orska's mother today.”
However, the 2022 edition was only the first of two traumatic editions of the race for Pogačar, with the 2023 edition seeing Pogačar crash out with a broken hand, derailing a large portion of his racing season.
“The last two years have been very difficult,” Bogarar said.
While the 2023 edition promised a showdown between Pogačar and Evenepoel, this year saw a fierce battle between the strongest riders in the 2024 Spring Classics as Mathieu van der Poel lined up against the former Tour de France winner.
Whether it was the result of a tactical error, a day of fatigue or just plain bad luck, Van der Poel struggled over the 254.5km course – finding himself on the wrong side of the split in the final 100km, leaving him 1:30 minutes behind His team. A competitor at some point in the race.
Van der Poel and Alpecin-Deceuninck returned to the main peloton, but the efforts may have played a role in allowing Pogačar to have a clear run when it came to his fierce attack on the Côte de la Redoute.
This move seemed like a plan from the beginning. “We rode hard on the climbs, we were safe on the descents and at La Redoute we did exactly what we said,” Pogacar said. “From then on it was a struggle until the end.”
While conditions were more forgiving than the extreme temperatures at La Flèche Wallonne earlier this week, the start was fast with a 5°C temperature, and the race saw several sharp downpours – meaning caution was central to Pogačar's plans.
“It was a miserable day from the start,” Bogarar explained. “All day on my mind. Just to be careful. Last year, my mind all day was to save as much energy as possible, but today, I was safer.
This victory represents an exceptional seasonal performance so far for the Emirates Team rider, who participated in races for only 10 days and won seven of them. With two of those days being stages in the Volta a Catalunya – where he won the general classification, mountain jersey and points jersey – the only race that Pogačar did not excel at was Milan-San Remo, where he finished third.
The performance so far will heighten anticipation for his campaign in the Giro d'Italia, where he enters as the favourite.
“I'm really happy that I was finally able to win this beautiful race again, and I thank all the team who worked with me today,” Bogar added.
“It was amazing teamwork and I couldn't have done it without them and I'm overwhelmed with emotion.”
