The Albany Gazette - Pogacar emulates icon Coppi with fourth straight Il Lombardia triumph

World champion Pogacar capped an astonishing year in which he also claimed a Tour de France and Giro d'Italia double and then adding the world title by matching Coppi, who won five times in total, including four victories between 1946 and 1949 at the last "Monument" (ultra-long one day races) of the season.

Pogacar made his move on the decisive Colma di Sormano climb, over 40 kilometres from the end of the 255km "Race of the Falling Leaves" whose course had been modified following heavy rain and landslides in northern Italy.

After being guided through the race by his strong UAE support team Pogacar surged to his second victory in as many races since donning the rainbow jersey in Zurich a fortnight ago with a trademark solo attack.

"It was a big day for us, a long race, a hard race and it was all dependent on our team so we did super good job and I'm super happy to win with the team," said Pogacar.

"We planned it like this... I knew that if I had a decent gap there, I can come to the finish."

The 26-year-old finished over three minutes ahead of double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel who returned to the site of his horror crash from four years ago which left him with a fractured hip when he plunged into a ravine.

Pogacar was already the first ever cyclist to win the triple crown of the Tour, Giro and worlds with at least one Monument victory in the same season.

And Saturday's triumph, his 25th in 2024, gives the Slovene star a good claim to have had the greatest ever season in the history of road cycling.

Pogacar began his campaign in Italy eight months ago by storming to the Strade Bianche with an 81km charge and topped that by nearly 20km on his way to world championship glory in Switzerland.

Between those two wins, Pogacar claimed a second Liege-Bastogne-Liege and six stages in each of his victories at the Tour and Giro, while also winning the Tour of Catalonia, the Montreal Grand Prix and last weekend's Giro dell'Emilia.

Those triumphs have made him the heir not just to seven-time Grand Tour champion Coppi but also Eddy Merckx, the greatest to ever sit on a bike.

No-one since Merckx's heyday of the 1970s has expressed the sort of dominance Pogacar has over the rest of the field this year.

Pogacar has only been beaten twice this year, at Milan-San Remo where he finished third, while his seventh place at the Quebec Grand Prix was his worst finish of the season.

(A.Thompson--TAG)