It wasn't if Tadej Pogačar would attack on his own at the Tour of Flanders, but when. The world champion has a habit of going solo to famous wins, and so it proved on Sunday at the Tour of Flanders, his second, but it was not simple.
Just as in 2023, it was the third and final time at the Oude Kwaremont with 17km to go that proved decisive, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider escaping to victory after a brutal attack, and he ended up winning by a minute.
Pogačar was tested by his rivals, however, despite that decisive gap in the end. He first attacked on the second time on the Kwaremont, aiming to break up the race, which he did, but it took 30km for the Slovenian to shake Mads Pedersen and Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike. This was not an easy win for the 26-year-old.
"The guys were so strong, the first time I attacked, and many climbs after as well," he said post-race. "It was a tough one to figure out as well, if I can do it. I had to try on every climb to do my best, to make this race hard, and I tried to give it all the last time and it worked.
"I was not certain [in his final attack] because I could also have run out of energy at that moment, but I didn't give up. I knew what I had to do and I did it my best."
That does not make it any less impressive. Pogačar has raced the Tour of Flanders three times, and finished fourth, first, and first. It is difficult for his rivals to countenance how to beat him, when he can just fly away like that.
"The plan was to make it a hard race, to attack on the second time on the Kwaremont, and we executed that plan," he explained.
That first attack on the Kwaremont, Pogačar essentially swept up all before him, blasting past the day's break, including Ineos Grenadiers' Connor Swift, who appeared to smile - it may have been a grimace. Teams had tried to place riders up the road to help their efforts, but it wasn't enough to contend with the eventual winner.
"I think it's quite crazy to see," Lidl-Trek's Daan Hoole, a member of one of those moves, said post-race. "If you see how easy Pogačar came across, it's quite impressive. You cannot do more than we did, and in the end he's just so much better that it's hard to beat him. It's scary to see how much better he is. With the headwind in the end, he stayed in front of four world class riders who worked together and tried to close it, it's quite crazy."
His team leader, Pedersen, echoed this: "Tadej, the way he rides... he's just on a completely different level than the rest. We didn't get any closer to him today. As a team, we just have to be happy with the way we rode at the moment, we got to the final with two riders. We had to wait a few years for that."
UAE had tried to set up Pogačar, which was no clearer than when Mikkel Bjerg asked his team leader whether the pace was right 100km out - a nod was the reply - but in the end it came down to one man, and his power on the climbs and on the flat.
"In this kind of race not everything goes perfectly," the Slovenian said. "I'm really happy with the team, to be in this team is a dream come true, and I enjoy racing with them so much. They gave more than 100% to today's plan. Sadly we lost Jonny [Narváez] and Tim [Wellens] in the crash, and Florian [Vermeersch] was chasing back the whole race. It didn't go perfectly, but in the end, because everyone gave so much, it worked. I have to thank everybody, because they did a phenomenal job today."
Pogačar, resplendent in the rainbow bands, was proffered a microphone on the podium, and even he seemed speechless - "what do I say?"
"Thank you everybody for coming, it was an amazing day," he said of his exhibition. "It was a beautiful atmosphere throughout the whole day, on all the climbs."
It is surely easier to enjoy the atmosphere when you're the fastest man at the Tour of Flanders, again. It's good that the best cyclist in the world is having fun.
"I think we have a really nice generation of cyclists," he said. "The bunch, the top competitors, I like to race against them, they are big champions, good guys. Today was amazing because of them, because of the fans, and because of my team. It was a perfect day."
