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Pogacar wins Giro dell'Emilia in 37km breakaway

Slovenian phenomenon comes in 2 minutes ahead of his rivals including Tom Pidcock

Pogacar wins Giro dell'Emilia in 37km breakaway

Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), fresh from his stunning world championship 100km breakaway win last Sunday in Zurich, won the Giro dell'Emilia Saturday with a 37 km solo breakaway that began on the first of five passages on the Colle di San Luca.

Briton Tom Pidcock was second with almost two minutes gap, and young Italian Davide Piganzoli came third.

Pogacar, 26, this year became only the third male cyclist after Eddy Merckx in 1974 and Stephen Roche in 1987, to achieve the Triple Crown of Cycling, winning the Giro, the Tour, and the World Championships in the same year.

"I'm super happy to win this race with the world champion's jersey on my shoulders. I felt great today, whereas in the four days following my title, I was drained," he said.

"As a new world champion, I felt a certain pressure, but it was a great day."

Pogacar finished the 215.8km race 1 minute 54 seconds ahead of Briton Tom Pidcock who edged Italian Davide Piganzoli in a sprint for second.

The race serves as the penultimate warm-up for the last one-day 'monument' of the year, the Tour of Lombardy. Pogacar will ride the Three Valleys of Varese on Tuesday, before trying to win in the 'race of the falling leaves' on Saturday for a fourth straight year.

It was Pogacar's 23rd victory of in 56 days of racing this year, a ratio that makes his 2024 season one of the finest in cycling history.

In intermittent rain and fog, the winner of the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia once again left his rivals, including compatriot Primoz Roglic, the defending champion and three-time winner of the event, trailing.

After Remco Evenepoel made the first move. Pogacar chased the Belgian down and then accelerated past and went away on the first of five climbs of the fearsome "Wall of San Luca".

Evenepoel dropped out with 25km to go.

VIDEO: Giro dell'Emilia Men's 2024 Race Highlights

2024 Giro dell'Emilia Men's Top 10

01  Pogacar Tadej UAE Team Emirates 05:14:43
02  Pidcock Tom INEOS Grenadiers + 01:54
03  Piganzoli Davide Team Polti Kometa + 01:54
04  Woods Michael Israel-Premier Tech + 01:54
05  Yates Simon Team Jayco-AlUla + 02:02
06  Adrià Roger Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe + 02:04
07  Kelderman Wilco Team Visma | Lease a Bike + 02:04
08  Mas Enric Movistar Team + 02:08
09  Ryan Archie EF Education-EasyPost + 02:13
10  Fortunato Lorenzo Astana Qazaqstan Team + 02:15