Tadej Pogačar has recognised that his devastatingly successful performance in the Volta a Catalunya this week, with four stage wins out of a possible seven and the race's biggest victory margin in 64 years, shows that he is well on track for the summer's main challenges of the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France.
In one of his most dominating performances in a week-long stage race to date, en route to his outright triumph, Pogačar claimed victories on all three summit finishes and the final reduced bunch sprint victory in Montjuïc Park on Sunday.
He's the first rider to win four stages of the Volta since Mario Cipollini captured the same number in the 1998 race – and barring a minor miscalculation in the opening stage at San Feliu, that could have gone Pogačar's way as well.
His overall winning margin of 3:41, boosted by another 10-second bonus with first place in the final dash for the line in Barcelona sets the bar even higher historically. It is the biggest since Catalan allrounder Miguel Poblet beat his Ferrys' teammates Jose Pérez Frances and Emilio Cruz to the top spot in 1960 with an advantage of 3:51.
On the final podium, Pogačar was flanked by Mikel Landa, who is enjoying one of his best-ever season starts, and an Egan Bernal who has taken another key step back towards his former levels with third. But Pogačar simply remains at the summit, yet again.
"This whole week has meant a lot to me, I had a rough half-season last year," said Pogačar referring to his crash in last year's Liège-Bastogne-Liège and subsequent recovery. "To start the season like this is really fantastic.
"This victory gives me a lot of confidence and I can see my shape is good. I'm really on a good path for the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France."
Often a winner from solo breaks, as was the case with his first three stages, Pogačar rounded out his first GC victory since Paris-Nice last year with his first reduced bunch sprint win since he outpowered Sergio Higuita and Alejandro in an Italian autumn Classic, the Tre Valle Varesine, in October 2022.
But as he explained his option for one last triumph – which also set the seal on his victories in the mountains and points ranking to boot – was only one card of several UAE had to play.
"Today was a different one, we tried with Marc Soler but in my opinion, he went too early. He decided to attack on the first lap but actually he did a good job, a great effort," Pogačar recounted.
"Then in the end we played with João Almeida a little bit and he went super-good over the last little rise and almost made it to the finish. So I saved my legs just in case the sprint came together and I'm super-happy to take another victory."
On a day with no less than six ascents of a viciously steep ascent to the Castell de Montjuïc and a very technical closing circuit, Pogačar said both good legs and being able to read the race correctly had played their part in taking one last triumph.
"Strong legs were important because after six days of hard racing, today was not easy at all. And as a team, we raced super good. We always had one guy in front, somebody covering the race. On a course as difficult as this to control, that's very important."
Pogačar explained that he had already gained confidence that he was in good shape in Strade Bianche – with his mammoth 81km solo break – and at Milan-San Remo. But Catalunya has strengthened that certainty even further.
"It was a different course here, a lot more climbing and the whole week was fantastic. Not just me, the whole team showed here we are on a good path."
As for whether he is in the best shape ever, Pogačar qualified that idea slightly by saying "I'm the most comfortable I've ever been on the bike. I really made one more step to enjoy it even more and to go every day with a smile on the bike, because I feel good with training and everything.
"I'm really happy and this is sometimes more important than just the numbers."
Next up, he said, is a good spell of recovery from what has been a very hard week of racing, and then he will prepare for the Giro "with a little bit of different training to what I've had up to now. So let's see what the future holds for us."
The present, in any case, could hardly be sweeter.
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