There are not enough words to describe Tadej Pogacar's extraordinariness. The numbers speak for themselves and the Liège-Bastogne-Liège is his ninth Monument Classic. In his palmares, he has 2 Tours of Flanders, 3 Liège and 4 Tours of Lombardy. Looking at statistics and rankings, Pogacar, by number of victories in Monument Classics, has reached Sean Kelly, Fausto Coppi and Costante Girardengo, and only Roger De Vlaeminck with 11 victories and Eddy Merckx, who won 19 Monument Classics in his career, have done better.

The Slovenian was very happy with his victory, but for him the comparison with Merckx and other cycling greats is absolutely unnecessary. "I just like riding a bike, that's it. I'm happy, but also honored to be so good. But comparisons are absolutely not required."

His season is simply stunning and he started winning at the UAE Tour in February. Then came the victory at Strade Bianche and third place at Milan-San Remo and then again the victory at the Tour of Flanders. At his first Paris-Roubaix he finished second, as well as at the Amstel Gold Race. Then this week, two new victories arrived, first at the Flèche Wallonne and then at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

"Victories are the most beautiful thing, of course, but the experience at Roubaix was really special. I never thought I could do it."

Liège was Tadej Pogacar's perfect race and, after his performance at Flèche Wallonne, this time he started as the number one favorite. "The intention was to make a selection at La Redoute and for us it would have been a test to see how the situation was."

Everything changed, however, when Remco Evenepoel was no longer visible in the leading group and this gave UAE the opportunity to easily take control of the race and prepare Pogacar's action. "In races, tactics are not sacred, you also have to go with the flow. I was surprised that Evenepoel was so far back on the climb. We started early with a high pace and in the first half of the race Quick-Step was always at the front. At the beginning I thought they were saving some energy on the descent towards La Redoute and I was waiting for them to come forward, but that didn't happen."

Tadej Pogacar did not want to dwell too much on questions about Evenepoel, limiting himself to giving some explanations. "Maybe Evenepoel didn't have good feelings, this is his fourth consecutive race, or maybe he lacked confidence to go strong on La Redoute. But I don't want to speak for him and you should ask him what happened."