Kigali: Tadej Pogacar won the men's road race at the UCI Road World Championships for the second year in a row with a dominant performance that left his rivals trailing. Four-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, 27, crossed the line in Rwanda to claim the winner's rainbow jersey one minute 28 seconds clear of Remco Evenepoel of Belgium.
According to BBC, the Republic of Ireland's Ben Healy took a superb third place, with Britain's Tom Pidcock in 10th, nine minutes five seconds down on Pogacar. Pogacar's masterful performance was a study in endurance and strategic efforts, rather than the more typical explosive riding he often employs in one-day races. Around a hilly course which consisted of more than 5,000 meters of climbing, he rode away from the peloton over Mount Kigali with 100 kilometers to go in the company of two of his UAE-Team Emirates trade team-mates.
Juan Ayuso of Spain was soon dropped, followed about 30 kilometers later by young Mexican Isaac del Toro, leaving the defending world champion in isolation. Pogacar maintained a gap of just over a minute to the four remaining chasers - Pidcock, Evenepoel, Healy, and Denmark's Mattias Skjelmose - for more than an hour, applying more power on the punishing, cobbled Cote du Kimihurura climb than his rivals.
Pogacar has dominated men's cycling across the past three seasons, frequently winning the sport's biggest one-day races by more than a minute and three-week Grand Tours by more than five minutes. He has won eight of the 13 races he has contested this season but showed uncharacteristic weakness last weekend as he only came fourth in the World Championships Time Trial. Pogacar insisted he had not been able to prepare for the time trial because of travel demands and time constraints, but any hope his competitors had that he was tired towards the end of a grueling season were dismissed as he secured his second world road title.
In 26C heat, it was the final cobbled climb on the circuit which put an end to the hopes of Pidcock, who finished third at the recent Vuelta a Espana. Pidcock, 26, had told BBC Sport that success could breed success in Kigali, but despite his eight-man Great Britain team delivering him to the front of the race at the crucial moment, he finally ran out of energy with about 40km to go.
It was an eventful day for double Olympic champion Evenepoel, who had to change his bike more than once during the race. Healy topped a superb season in which he also won a stage of this year's Tour de France. The 25-year-old is the first Irishman to make the podium since Sean Kelly took third in 1989, while Stephen Roche won the event in 1987.
Canada's Magdeleine Vallieres won the women's elite road race on Saturday, finishing 23 seconds ahead of Niamh Fisher-Black of New Zealand and 27 seconds ahead of Mavi Garcia of Spain. It was an unexpected title for the EF Education-Oatly rider, with several favorites, such as Demi Vollering of the Netherlands and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot of France, more than one minute behind.