Tadej Pogacar on his first race day of the year: "If Molano wasn’t unlucky, I think it would have been something super beautiful"
Cycling
Tadej Pogacar has took on the UAE Tour as the main favourite for the overall classification and already on stage 1 he gave it a go. The World Champion was an outsider for the slight uphill sprint and did try, but didn't have the explosivity necessary to achieve a stage win or bonifications.
The plan for the day was to help out Juan Sebastián Molano, but the Colombian rider crashed hard with a few kilometers to go and so all focus was on the Slovenian. “We were a bit unlucky with Sebas (Juan Sebastián Molano, ed.) crashing, and it didn’t go as planned in the end in the final. But otherwise, we had good legs, we tried and it was a nice race".
Pogacar got himself in the middle of the sprinters and with the gradients present on the road, it was a viable possibility that he would go on to fight for a victory. He was the first to launch his sprint, but a few riders could comfortably follow him still. Jonathan Milan was straight on his wheel after the leadout from Bardiani, and the fast men would then fight for the win as the rainbow jersey disappeared into the peloton - an unusual sight.
“It looked like I was still stuck in my leadout idea because I went so early in the wind! If Molano wasn’t unlucky, I think it would have been something super beautiful," he argues. In the end many went through him, and Pogacar settled with a 10th place on the day.
But the race lead is possible tomorrow as the riders tackel a 12-kilometer long time-triala. “I am looking forward to tomorrow, it’s going to be the first real long effort of the season. The feeling is ok, there was a lot of work done in the winter and I hope it pays off tomorrow in the time trial.”
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“You miss my leadout, eh. I do a good leadout for you, buddy” 😁
— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamEmiratesUAE) February 17, 2025
Despite crashing towards the end of stage 1, Sebastián Molano rode to the finish at the @uae_tour and was greeted by @TamauPogi over the line.
Down but not out, we go again tomorrow after Tadej’s 10th place 💪🏻… pic.twitter.com/Rbv4fcHpxN
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- That made me smile Suipedali. Nice one!Cyclingsbestfan14-03-2025
- Even if Pogi has 5s on top of Poggio, he's getting caught on descent unfortunately. And it's extremely unlikely that he will have morevappaxbipmv14-03-2025
- If Pogi can drop him, then he will winabstractengineer14-03-2025
- In that sense, those two have less in common than the link you could make between demonstrators, right handers, Hinault and Merckx.Mistermaumau14-03-2025
- "He apparently thought it was completely fine." Nothing broken and no concussion, that's as completely fine as it gets in cyclingvappaxbipmv14-03-2025
- Better safe than sorry. At least his injuries are a lot less severe than they were last year.
santiagobenites14-03-2025 - Well spotted :-)Mistermaumau14-03-2025
- One thing Jonas Vingegaard has in common with Hinault is that they are moaners, although I couldn't see Jonas giving a demonstrator a right hander!Suipedali14-03-2025
- They are surprisingly rare on the pro circuit, around our area, one in four races finishes of with a really steep 500m climb at the end.Mistermaumau14-03-2025
- Give him an uphill sprint, then he may win against pure sprinters.
KerisVroom14-03-2025