Pogacar adds Tre Valli Varesine ahead of Il Lombardia Monument
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Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar has won 19 times this season and is red-hot favourite to make it 20 on Oct 11.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MILAN – Tadej Pogacar added yet another victory to his stunning season by winning the Tre Valli Varesine cycling race on Oct 7 as he prepares for the final Monument of the season.
Having recently added the European title to his world crown, Pogacar also prevailed in northern Italy, thanks to a trademark attack more than 20 kilometres from the end of a tough 200.3km course.
Pogacar has won 19 times this season and is red-hot favourite to make it 20 on Oct 11, when he will bid to become the first man to win the Giro di Lombardia five years in a row.
The 27-year-old is aiming to join Italian great Fausto Coppi on five wins at the “Race of the Falling Leaves”, which in 2025 runs from Como to Bergamo.
He is also hoping to match a feat ever achieved only by Belgian superstar Eddy Merckx by winning three of the five Monuments in the same season.
In April, Pogacar won both the Tour of Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege, having also finished second at Paris-Roubaix, and in March he was third at Milan-San Remo.
Merckx managed a trio of Monuments four times in his career and has a record 19 victories in the prestigious one-day classics.
Pogacar is bidding for his 10th, which would put him out on his own in third place, behind only Merckx and another Belgian, Roger de Vlaeminck (11).
Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard will go head to head in a new format when they take part in the inaugural Andorra Cycling Masters race in October.
The four-rider event, also featuring former Giro d’Italia and La Vuelta winner Primoz Roglic and Isaac del Toro, comprises an 8.23km uphill time trial on the Coll de la Gallina before a 32km urban duel in the heart of Andorra la Vella and Escaldes-Engordany.
With no team back-up and no peloton to hide in, the format is designed to pit four of the best riders in the world against each other in a unique environment.
Denmark’s Vingegaard won the 2025 Vuelta a Espana and is regarded as the main rival to Pogacar’s domination.
The Oct 19 event, which is not an official International Cycling Union-sanctioned race, will also offer behind-the-scenes footage that will form a documentary to be released at the end of 2025.
Organiser David Quintana said it will be a rare chance for fans to watch Pogacar and Vingegaard going wheel to wheel, especially on the multi-lap street race.
“The idea was to put four of the very best riders together but without teams and so on, racing directly against each other,” he told Cycling News.
“That way the public could see who, each season, is the champion of champions.” AFP, REUTERS
