Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) may have won a fourth Liège-Bastogne-Liège solo by 45 seconds, but that doesn't quite show the entire picture of just how close 19-year-old Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) pushed him to his absolute limit.
The World Champion even conceded post-race that he had already been thinking of how to play the two-up sprint after failing to get rid of Seixas on La Redoute, where everyone else crumbled under the pressure of his initial stinging attack.
Pogačar went so hard trying to drop Seixas on La Redoute that the pair actually broke the record time on the iconic Ardennes climb, beating the Slovenian's previous best time of 3:58 by 13 seconds with a 3:45 ascent.
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"On La Redoute I was really going deep, and I could see that he's a little bit on the elastic, but over the top he came next to me, and I was like 'OK, really impressed'," said Pogačar after the finish.
"Then he was also pulling quite strong all the way. We opened up a big gap, which was good for us. Then I was maybe, in the back of my head, preparing already to do a sprint, because he was so strong."
When they arrived at the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons as the leading duo, though, Pogačar made a last bid to distance the young super talent, and he finally cracked him with 13.9km to go and 500 metres of the climb remaining in what became the winning move.
"But I tried on Roche-aux-Faucons with my pace. I know the climb super well, and it suits me well, and luckily, he dropped, but I was prepared to go head-to-head in a sprint with him," he said, before admitting in the mixed zone that his sprint defeat to Wout van Aert in Paris-Roubaix was also on his mind.
"Between La Redoute and La Roche-aux-Facons, I was already thinking about the sprint and how I should approach it, that it's not a big gap like in Roubaix with Wout, that he was going to humiliate me in the sprint.
"So I had this in mind already, but I wanted to try on the last climb, and I succeeded, so it was no worries about being outsprinted. It was tough to crack Paul in the end, but I'm happy to win."
Pogačar also showed a rare insight into the pressure he feels coming into the events on his limited calendar, with Liège being just his fifth race appearance in 2026. From those five days, he has won four, three of them at Monuments, and his worst result is second place at Paris-Roubaix.
"It means a lot to win one of the biggest races of the year again," he said. "I don't do many races; I don't have a lot of opportunities to win, because I don't race a lot, so it's a lot of pressure for me to deliver on days like today, and I'm really happy that we succeeded. I couldn't be prouder of the team."
With a successful Spring Classics campaign in the bank already, Pogačar will finally switch focus to stage racing on Tuesday at the Tour de Romandie, before he completes his final build-up for the Tour de France at altitude and the Tour de Suisse.
One rider he will be expecting to see come July is indeed his new young rival, Seixas, saying "I think we will see him in the Tour because he's such a big talent, so I think France can be happy with how he rides," before stressing to the reporters present in Liège the responsibility they have in ensuring he isn't under too much pressure, "but you guys need to take care of him."
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