masterful, Tadej Pogacar retains his title after a new solo demonstration

The Slovenian attacked Mount Kigali 105 kilometers from the finish and finished the last 67 solo kilometers to raise his arms on the finish line of the world championships in Kigali (Rwanda) on Sunday.

Everything seemed to be written in advance, but after the surprise victory of Magdeleine Vallieres over the women's race the day before, Tadej Pogacar was to be wary. So the Slovenian, a big favorite of the elite racing men from the Worlds, preferred to take the lead, Sunday September 28, by attacking very early, his trademark, at 105 kilometers of arrival on an extremely difficult course around Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Very few have managed to follow him, and the winner of the Tour de France finished alone, to put on the rainbow jersey of world champion for the second consecutive year. The Belgian Remco Evenepoel (+1'28 '') and the Irishman Ben Healy (+2'16 '') complete the podium.

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The race was animated from Mount Kigali (5.9 km at 6.9%), when the morning breakaway, of which French was part Julien Bernard, was taken up by a peloton of already reduced favorites. Among them, Tadej Pogacar, of course, who attacked even earlier than in Zurich the previous year (101 kilometers in Switzerland), leaving its competitors on the spot, apart from the Spaniard Juan Ayuso and the Mexican Isaac Del Toro, two of his teammates from UAE Team Emirates-XRG this season. But when Kigali's wall, and its huge percentages on irregular pavement (400 meters at 11%), stood in front of them, the Spaniard fell completely, almost stopped.

Tadej Pogacar and Isaac del Toro then gave themselves up together, but the Mexican could not follow him very long, despite the help that the Slovenian tried to bring him. Seeing his young companion in difficulty, the outgoing world champion did not linger. After all, these are not 66 solo kilometers which frightened him, he who also won the Strade Bianche 2024 after 81 mileages in solo.

During this time a few hundred meters further, Remco Evenepoel, less in legs in Mount Kigali, then got angry and was late because of problems on its bicycle saddle. But the Belgian, who was the main competitor of the Slovenian on paper, used his exasperation to return and form a group of three runners, with the Danish Mattias Skjelmose and the Irishman Ben Healy, hunting Slovenian. They may have hoped to relive the same scenario as on the Amstel Gold Race, where Pogacar had stuck in the last kilometers of his lonely raid and had been caught, for a final victory for the Danish. But even three runners and cooperating, this group has never resumed time on the Imperial Slovenian.

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So Remco Evenepoel took its destiny in hand, in aero position at 20 kilometers of the finish, to hope to find the sensations of his victorious time trial during these Worlds. He dropped his two companions to offer himself the silver medal, ahead of Ben Healy, who deposited Mattias Skjelmose in the coast of Kigali Golf, at 5 kilometers from the finish. But not what to console the Belgian, crying on arrival.

On the French side, Thomas Voeckler's Blues did not weigh on the race as they hoped, with a sick Julian Alaphilippe and therefore forced to abandon. Pavel Sivakov has a time left for the Slovenian, but did not hold. The first tricolor is finally the youngest of them, Paul Seixas, 13th. Pretty promises on the part of the 19-year-old French nugget, two years old from the Worlds at home in Sallanches (Haute-Savoie), even if his group arrived more than nine minutes from the winner.

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With this new success, Tadej Pogacar won his 17th victory of the season and its second title of world champion, on a course that only 30 runners managed to travel to the finish line. And his harvest may not be over, since Slovenian must align with the European Championships in Drôme-Ardèche in a week, Sunday October 5, where he should find his two big rivals, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel.