Before the UEC Road European Championships, Belgian national team coach Serge Pauwels had a message for Tadej Pogačar - if he tried to attack from far out, it could end badly.
Naturally, the road world champion defied expectations, attacking with a full 75 kilometres still to race, and no one from the Belgian team could match his acceleration on the seven-kilometre Côte de Saint Romain de Lerps.
Time trial world champion Remco Evenepoel chased after the Slovenian for more than 70 kilometres but was still 31 seconds down when he crossed the line to win the silver medal. Paul Seixas (France) finished third at 3:41.
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The move disrupted the Belgians' plans to bring the decisive moment to the much more manageable Côte de Val d'Enfer on the closing circuits.
"This was probably the most fair result. Another silver medal at the European Championships, that's a shame," Evenepoel told Sporza.
"Tadej Pogacar 's attack was just a bit too long. I had to let go on the last steep section. I did my best and rode my race. I'm still 20 to 30 seconds off, but it's a fair result."
Toward that end, Louis Vervaeke made his way into the breakaway to force the Slovenian team to work to control their advantage.
Then, the Belgians pushed the pace in the chasing peloton on the Côte de Saint-Romain de Lerps, dropping Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark) from the group.
"With that move, we wanted to isolate Pogaçar, and we succeeded," Tiesj Benoot explained to Sporza.
However, Pavel Sivakov (France) then attacked, drawing out Pogačar and Evenepoel, who then attacked on the descent, bridging to the remnants of the breakaway with his biggest rival and France's Paul Seixas.
"It wasn't the plan for Remco to attack shortly afterward," Xandro Meurisse said to Sporza. "Although we knew that with this form, Remco shouldn't be afraid to attack from far away."
A reduced peloton caught the attackers, and Belgium had the numbers in the group, while Pogačar had no teammates, and the team felt they had done everything to keep from benefiting the World Champion.
However, when Pogačar attacked early in the final ascent of the Côte de Saint-Romain de Lerps with 75km to go, even Evenepoel could not respond.
Had he not gotten away, Louis Vervaeke said, "We would have tackled the local tours with a strong Belgian collective. Pogacar wouldn't have been able to gain that much time on Evenepoel on those short climbs.
"But if Tadej launches his attack at the foot of that long climb, there's nothing you can do about it. That climb took 20 minutes, and then Pogačar is simply outstanding.
"What could we have done differently?. If anyone can tell me how to beat Tadej today, I'd love to hear it."
Benoot said the Belgian team has no regrets.
"At least we didn't let ourselves be led like sheep to the slaughter. The course was simply so tough that it was difficult as a collective to do anything against a rider who stood out so much."
