Dominant two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar earned his second win of the season on Tuesday by comfortably taking the second stage of the Tour of Catalonia.
UAE Team Emirates rider Pogacar, who said he “messed up” at the end of Monday’s first stage as he reacted too late to catch Nick Schultz’s sprint to the line, made no such mistake on day two and became the new race leader.
The Slovenian was favourite to triumph in the mountains and after attacking with 6.5 kilometres remaining, could not be caught in a rainy finish.
Pogacar completed the 186.5km trail from Mataro to Vallter nearly a minute and a half ahead of his closest contenders Mikel Landa and Aleksandr Vlasov, taking control of the general classification.
The 25-year-old made the 11km climb to the finish with an average gradient of nearly eight percent look easy and only seven riders finished within two minutes of him.
“We started with nice weather, like summer, and then we saw these clouds, and we were thinking that maybe we could survive until the final climb without rain, but unfortunately, it started to rain on the second-to-last climb,” said Pogacar.
“The conditions were tough – it was a hard climb, and you could feel the altitude, but I’m happy to win.
“At the start, that was a pretty fun moment with Domen but then in the final on the downhill, I was really feeling comfortable on the downhill and I just went on my own pace, nothing special,” Pogacar said after the finish.
He leads the race by one minute and 35 seconds from Soudal-QuickStep’s Spanish rider Landa.
In his post-stage interview with Cycling Pro Net, Pogacar’s chief rival Landa said on Tuesday: “I am very satisfied, especially because I had not raced for a while. I actually wanted to take it day by day, but I’m better than expected.”
“It was really cold today. I had problems with my hands in the final. It is clear that Pogacar is the strongest,” Landa said. “Of course I would like to win a stage and finish on the podium. But it is important to take it one day at a time,” he added.
Today’s stage three offers another chance for Pogacar, aiming for an ambitious Giro-Tour double in 2024, to shine.
It is another mountainous stage, stretching 176.7km from Sant Joan de les Abadesses to Port Aine, with an 18km climb to the finish.
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