Pogacar hunting ‘perfect’ season finale with Coppi’s Il Lombardia record

ANC’s Paul Mashatile and Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri
ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile
ANC Veterans League remeMbers former Finance Minister Tito Mboweni Mboweni.
MILAN – Tadej Pogacar is aiming to cap an astonishing year by matching cycling great Fausto Coppi’s record of four straight victories at Il Lombardia, the last of the four ‘Monument’ one-day classics of the season.
Slovene superstar Pogacar wrote himself into the history books last month when he was crowned world champion for the first time.
That triumph in Zurich made him just the third man to win the rainbow jersey, the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia in the same year, matching Stephen Roche and Eddy Merckx.
Now Pogacar is preparing to match Coppi’s quadruple between 1946 and 1949 at the Race of the Falling Leaves in northern Italy, the end of season special which he has won in increasingly spectacular style with each passing year.
Pogacar claimed last year’s edition with a trademark solo attack, a 32km burst to Bergamo which he has since made look puny in a remarkable campaign.
“It’s been the perfect season for us this year. All the team worked really hard and things really clicked for us,” said Pogacar.
“I’ll definitely look back on this year as a really special time. But it’s not over yet and we want to finish it off well and with a strong result in my last race of the season in Lombardia.”
At Friday’s press conference the Team UAE rider, tackled about doping, said suspicions of doping came because “cycling is a victim of it’s past”.
“There’s always jealousy but there is dominance everywhere, in business and sport. It lasts a few years then fresh talent takes its place,” Pogacar said.
The 26-year-old began his season in Italy eight months ago by storming to the Strade Bianche with an 81km charge and topped that by nearly 20km on his way to glory in Switzerland less than a fortnight ago.
Between those two wins, Pogacar claimed a second Liege-Bastogne-Liege and six stages in each of his victories at the Tour and Giro, triumphs which have made him the heir to not just the likes of Coppi but Merckx himself.
And Pogacar has a stellar cast of UAE teammates alongside him for this year’s punishing 252-kilometre run between Bergamo and Como which features 4,800 metres of hard climbing.