Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) laid down a final ominous marker before he heads to the Zürich UCI Road World Championships as the favourite for the road race, riding solo to his 22nd win of the year at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal after a blistering attack 23.3km from the finish.
Such was his dominance that the Slovenian even had time to high-five Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec winner and close friend Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) as he powered up the Avenue du Parc one final time, with soigneurs and team manager Mauro Gianetti following suit as the Emirati team celebrated past the line.
Pogačar has already brought UAE Emirates the Giro d'Italia and reclaimed the Tour de France title in 2024 and his evident form looks to he strengthening the odds on adding a rainbow jersey, the final part of the puzzle to becoming the third men's 'Triple Crown' winner after Eddy Merckx (1974) and Stephen Roche (1987).
With the GP Montréal wrapped up successfully, the extra motivation is there for him to become Slovenia's first road race world champion after their previous best as a national team being third, through Pogačar in 2023 and one of his sports directors at UAE Team Emirates, Andrej Hauptman, in 2001.
"For sure, today gave me a lot of confidence and motivation," said Pogačar in his winner's press conference, taking place just hours before he'd get back on a plane to Europe and begin the final push for Zürich.
"[In] two weeks you cannot do really a lot in terms of shape but just a few more training [sessions], some long, some intensive but not too much. Then I think we are ready for the World Championships.
"For sure we celebrate a little bit but in two weeks is World Championships as well so you need to focus and be ready for that."
Pogačar even had time to do some sightseeing during his performance once he was alone and think about which celebration he would go for, opting to emulate the pose of Sir George-Étienne Cartier, whose monument is on the finish straight, and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo with the 'calma' in front of the adoring crowds.
"You see the statues where the finish is also the guy doing like this? Just to be calm," explained the Slovenian of his gesture with a smile.
'The perfect race'
This is not the first time Pogačar has tasted victory in Montréal after outsprinting Wout van Aert to the line in the 2022 edition, which placed him as one of the key favourites for Worlds in Wollongong, Australia. But he only managed 19th on that day as Remco Evenepoel soloed to the win.
However, today was a completely different feat, riding Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) and a whole host of other top riders off the wheel up the penultimate ascent of the circuit's main climb – Côte Camilien-Houde – before holding a 24-second advantage to second-placed Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) to the line.
The 23.3km point of attack is also key to note, with the bell lap of the Zürich road race set to arrive with 26.8km to go and the final ascents of the key Zürichbergstrasse and Witikon climbs cresting at 20km to go, making Montréal the perfect final dress rehearsal for Pogačar.
It will be Belgium's Evenepoel that again lines up as his main rival at the World Championships road race on September 29, however, the reigning Giro-Tour champion looks more than ready for Zürich having delivered a seamless race with UAE Team Emirates.
"It was still a really hard race but the team was on point," said Pogačar as he described the 209.1km effort. "We did it really how we planned, the race situation was good for us and we made it hard in the last final laps. Then they set me up for an attack with two laps to go and it was the perfect race for us."
After a seventh-place finish at last Friday's GP Québec, it was key for Pogačar to get back to winning ways and in doing so take his 22nd victory of this historic 2024 season.
"Quebec I surprised myself with the super good legs and I was disappointed because I had the legs but didn't do better than seventh, at least podiuming would have been more satisfying," he said.
"But I knew that Quebec is not the race that suits me the most and if I remember two years ago, it was really hard for me and now I'm getting more into it. I get to know it better every year. To bounce back after seventh place to victory is an incredible feeling, super good."
It's already been a season for the ages for the superstar Slovenian, however, the world title would bring him to even greater heights than he's already reached at the age of only 25.
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