The Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, who aspired to a hat-trick in the Ardennes classics, left Liège-Bastogne-Liège this Sunday after a fall at kilometer 85 of the race, the organizers announced. This abandonment of the UAE rider, who has just won the Amstel Gold Race and the Flèche Wallonne, leaves this mythical race without the expected duel with the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, current champion.
The organization of the race explained that the Slovenian cyclist suffered a fall after kilometer 85, along with the Danish Mikkel Honoré (EF Education), who also withdrew. All of Pogacar's teammates stopped to wait for their leader to bring him back to the peloton, but the Slovenian was unable to join the race again. At the moment, no further information has been provided on the state of health of the 24-year-old Slovenian phenomenon.
Invincible in recent weeks, Pogacar, winner in 2021 in the "Doyenne", the oldest of the classics, was aiming for a hat-trick in the Ardennes achieved by only two riders in history, Davide Rebellin in 2004 and Philippe Gilbert in 2011.
The double winner of the Tour de France (2020 and 2021) has chained since the start of the season an astonishing record of twelve successes in eighteen days of racing, including Paris-Nice and the Tour of Flanders.
La Liège-Bastogne-Liège is a very mountainous classic with a total of eleven climbs on the program this year. The race is usually marked by spectacular crashes like Julian Alaphilippe's last year. The then reigning two-time world champion was seriously injured after hitting a tree at full speed, suffering from a pneumothorax, a fractured shoulder blade and several lateral fractures.
