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Tadej Pogačar (middle) shows it: The exceptional rider took four stage victories on the Tour of Catalonia

Photo: Quique Garcia / EPA

Cycling star Tadej Pogačar celebrated his first overall victory in the Tour of Catalonia and is a step closer to the next milestone in his career. The Slovenian won on Sunday on the final stage to Barcelona. Previously, success in the 103rd edition of the race could only be taken away from him in theory. In the end, the 25-year-old was 3:41 minutes ahead of the Spaniard Mikel Landa.

Pogačar used the tour to prepare for the Giro d'Italia, which he wants to win outright in his first participation in May. In Catalonia, the exceptional driver won four of the seven stages.

Pogačar still has a lot to do

On the final stage over 154.3 kilometers to the Catalan capital, the fourth victory of the day was “actually not the plan, we relied on Marc Soler,” said Pogačar after the race. But when his teammate couldn't break away, the captain of the UAE Emirates team struck in the final spurt. Until then, he had only “tried to follow the other wheels and stay in front,” said Pogačar.

Pogačar has now won the third of the seven most important one-week races after Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico. During the week, Pogačar made it his career goal to win each of these tours at least once. »I want to check them all off. But it will take a while because of the race calendar,” said the two-time Tour de France winner. Pogačar is still missing victories in the Tour de Romandie, the Tour de Suisse, the Tour of the Basque Country and the Critérium du Dauphiné.

He is also aiming for victories in all five of cycling's so-called monuments, the most important one-day races. So far only the Belgians Rik Van Looy, Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck have achieved this. Pogačar has already triumphed at the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Lombardy. Successes at Milan-Sanremo and Paris-Roubaix are missing.

He is the only currently active driver who is believed to be able to win all the monuments. His competitor Jonas Vingegaard hardly takes part in the races. This year Pogačar also wants to hit back at the Tour de France after Vingegaard won twice in a row.

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