KIGALI, Rwanda — Slovenian Tadej Pogacar capped a superb season by winning the European title to add to his World Cycling Championships crown in kigali, Rwanda, before issuing a warning to his rivals by saying he still has room to improve and become even better.
This year’s European Championships were billed as a three-way battle between Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard, but a dominant Pogacar blew away the competition with a devastating 75-km solo attack.
Belgian Evenepoel was second, while Dane Vingegaard did not finish the race.
Pogacar also beat Evenepoel to claim a second-consecutive men’s road race world title last month, becoming the first rider to win the Tour de France and the World Championships Road race the same year twice in a row.
“Every year I want to be a better version of myself. Try to gain more experience, try different races and I am lucky enough to be in these kinds of races. I need to enjoy it for as long as I can,” Pogacar said according to Reuters.
“Remco was really good and always chasing me and I could not give up until the finish line. I had to push really, really hard and I’m happy it’s over and another title.”
Pogacar is expected to finish his season at the Giro di Lombardia this month, where he is chasing a fifth consecutive victory.
Isaac del Toro, meanwhile, won the Giro dell’Emilia, beating Tom Pidcock in an exciting end to the one-day cycling race.
Mexican Del Toro come out on top after the fifth and final climb up the tricky Madonna di San Luca hill in Bologna, which served as the Italian race’s finale after 199 kilometres of hard racing.
Lenny Martinez from Bahrain Victorious completed the podium after pipping Egan Bernal to third, AFP reported.
UAE ridern Del Toro has been a revelation this year, winning eight one-day races and a stage at the Giro d’Italia, where he was only beaten to the overall title in dramatic fashion by Simon Yates.
The 21-year-old held the pink jersey at the grand tour from stage nine until the penultimate stage when Briton Yates dropped him and Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz, who seemed to be marking each other, to snatch the overall lead in a daring attack in the Italian Alps.
The race served as one of a series of warm-ups for next weekend’s Il Lombardia, the final Monument of the season which this year runs from Como to Bergamo.
Del Toro’s star teammate Tadej Pogacar — the Tour de France and world champion — will bid to join Italian great Fausto Coppi on five wins at the “Race of the Falling Leaves”, and could also become the first man ever to win it five years in a row.
Spanish cycling sensation Juan Ayuso, meanwhile, signed a five-year contract with Lidl-Trek after a messy divorce from UAE Team Emirates that turned the recent Vuelta a Espana into a public relations battleground.
The 23-year-old’s move comes after what UAE Team Emirates diplomatically called “differences in the vision of development plans” when announcing their mutual agreement to terminate his contract early, a deal originally set to run until 2028.
But Ayuso did not buy the diplomatic spin, accusing UAE Team Emirates of trying to “damage my image” by announcing the split during the Vuelta, where he won two stages and was an early contender for the general classification.
