Tadej Pogačar already held a toweringly high position as the number 1 favourite for victory in Il Lombardia this weekend, but he added a couple more storeys to that status all the same on Tuesday, with yet another solo victory to clinch his final warm-up race, the Tre Valli Varesine.
"The legs should be good for Saturday," the UAE Team Emirates-XRG racer told CyclingProNet and other reporters after his latest triumph, taken when he powered away 22 kilometres from the finish line in Varese, Italy.
Pogačar already won Tre Valli back in 2022, as well as taking third in 2021, fifth in 2023 and being present in the race in 2024 when it was cancelled due to poor weather and on each of his four previous participations, he has gone on to win Il Lombardia.
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So to say that history is on his side following his latest jaw-dropping display of cycling power is an understatement of some proportions, then, with his latest devastating victories in the World Championships and Europeans on consecutive Sundays adding even more seemingly unstoppable momentum.
"Obviously it's been a long season now but Lombardia is this big goal and I have extra motivation to do it super-well," Pogačar said as he eyed a fifth straight win in the final Monument of the season - one that would put him level for Race of the Falling Leaves triumphs, too, with the record held by Italian legend Fausto Coppi for more than seventy years.
"Also, it's a Monument, it's one of the biggest one-day races in the calendar, so the legs should be good for Saturday."
There was even a backup plan for Pogačar at Tre Valli, the UAE leader revealed, with teammate Isaac del Toro present in the chase group ready and waiting to counter-attack if the near-unthinkable had happened and Pogačar been caught before the line.
Instead, Pogačar was able to continue with no sign of the opposition being able to stage a comeback, claiming his victory over Albert Withen Philipsen (Lidl-Trek) and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) by 45 seconds. Del Toro, having maintained his role as foil to Pogačar all the way to the line, was able to end in eighth, rounding off a perfect day for UAE:
"The plan was to wait for the final lap to ride at a good pace and then Tudor decided to go super-deep, super-early," Pogačar explained after making a flying downhill attack - possibly the most unusual feature of one of his trademark solo moves.
"They opened the race from far, but Del Toro and me went on the attack on one of the climbs, and - it happened.
It was a really good situation. We were in the front group but we knew nobody will work with us too much, so when I saw I had a gap on the downhill, I pushed on at the roundabout.
"Then on the flat, I knew even if I killed myself, we still had Isaac in the back, he could win from a small group or solo. It was a really good situation, and we made it."
Now 27, Pogačar shared the podium with a rider eight years his junior, Albert Withen Philipsen, whilst on the other side, another double World Champion, 33-year-old Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) celebrated a promising top result.
Neither were able to match Pogačar, but the World's number one racer agreed with journalists that the presence of such a young rider as Withen Philipsen was a sign that when he finally hangs up his wheels, the future of the sport will likely be in good hands.
"I told Julian on the podium that I already feel old next to him [Withen Philipsen], so how should Alaphilippe feel next to us?" Pogačar asked rhetorically.
"We are getting old now, and a new generation is coming. Paul Seixas [third in the Europeans and aged 19 - ed.] has been brilliant all season, and Albert [Withen] Philipsen is amazing too."
"We have such good talents for next few years, cycling will keep going in a couple of years time. I guess it's an extra motivation to have new competition coming, for sure they will push me for some more races in the future."
For now, though, the present of the sport looks to be securely in Pogačar's hands, and to judge by his multiple performances this year and several previous to it, he'll proved singularly hard to dislodge from the top of his sport. What's more at Il Lombardia on Saturday, the odds of him showing that superiority yet again are arguably at their longest ever.
