Pogacar cracks teen Seixas to win 4th Liege-Bastogne-Liege

AFP | Liege

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World champion Tadej Pogacar won a third straight Liege-Bastogne-Liege yesterday after a thrilling battle with teenage French sensation Paul Seixas.

Pogacar romped to his 13th Monument victory and fourth in total at La Doyenne after finally cracking Seixas with 14km to ride of the 260km slog through the Ardennes, halfway up the last of 11 punchy climbs along the route.

Seixas came home 45 seconds later with Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel winning the sprint for third place from a large group 1min 42sec back.

“It means a lot to win again one of the biggest races of the year,” Pogacar told Belgian television at the finish line.

In what was only his fifth race this year, Pogacar claimed a fourth victory -- and three of those in Monuments -- while his only blip was a second place behind Wout van Aert at Paris-Roubaix two weeks ago.

“I don’t have a lot of opportunities to win because I don’t race a lot,” added Pogacar.

“So it’s a lot of pressure for me to deliver on days like today.

“I’m really, really happy that we succeeded. I couldn’t be more proud of the team.”

But in 19-year-old Seixas, he now has a rival seemingly capable of pushing him to the limit.

“On the Redoute (climb) I was really going deep,” said Pogacar.

“But on the top, he came next to me and I was like, okay, really impressed.”

At that point, he expected Seixas to stay with him to the finish.

“Maybe back in my head, I was already preparing to do a duel sprint because he was so strong