Tadej Pogačar won the men's road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Zürich with a solo attack that began 100 kilometres from the line. He became the third rider ever, after Eddy Merckx and Stephen Roche, to win the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and world road title in one season.
A hundred kilometres out, a race torn open
The Slovenian bolted from the peloton on 29 September, with only Andrea Bagioli able to follow at first. Pogačar soon shed him and began chasing a 16-rider breakaway ahead. Jan Tratnik dropped back from that group to help, and the pair reached the escapees with 89 km remaining.
On the next lap he attacked again, and this time only Pavel Sivakov stayed on his wheel. The two rode together until the penultimate climb, where Pogačar shook him off and set out alone across the final 50 kilometres.
A third crown, three decades in waiting
The 273.9 km course packed over 4,200 metres of climbing, the longest Worlds route in more than ten years. His lead shrank to less than 40 seconds on the last lap, but he held firm and crossed the line in six hours, 27 minutes and 30 seconds.
Australia's Ben O'Connor finished 34 seconds back, with defending champion Mathieu van der Poel taking bronze. The win was his 23rd of 2024, a season that already held a Giro debut won by nearly ten minutes and a third Tour de France title.
"I didn't dare to dream of winning this jersey"
"When we were kids, I didn't dare to dream of winning this jersey," Pogačar told reporters afterwards. "I dreamt of starting the Tour de France and the Worlds but not to win it."
Remco Evenepoel had arrived hunting a double-double after his Paris Olympic golds. Instead the day belonged to Pogačar, who gave Slovenia its first men's road race gold medal, a year after his own bronze.
