UNSTOPPABLE IN CYCLING | TADEJ POGAČAR 2025

Oh, now it's really kicking off. Ben Healey not just doing the chasing, he's actually made the gap spit up in there. Taddy Pogacar's got a thought to have here. He jumps across the gap to where we've already seen Del Toro. Del Toro is already in there at the front of the race. As we see back in the group behind now, it's a cap on making moves and that's Del Toro who then has to chase and answer. Yeah, Leo Visu is sat on his wheel, but he's just watched one of his teammates go absolutely ripping fast. Del Toro has Laffey. Laffey looking in much better shape as well. And there, Taddy Pogacar now joins them at the front of the race. It is going down here. Eulalio is about to be caught by Isaac Del Toro, Taddy Pogacar, and who did I say? Victor Laffey. You said it, Jon, actually. Wow, that's a powerful three coming in. UAE Team Emirates with Del Toro and Pogacar had to go on the offensive. That's exactly what they've done with 28k to go. So Isaac Del Toro, who this season has had 14 wins. I mean, you've got to remember that I wrote down on the right, okay, it's obvious that Taddy Pogacar won the most wins in this field. So I wrote 18 on my start list. Isn't it? Del Toro's had 14 wins. At the moment in this chase group, they've got Taddy Pogacar listed twice. And I think one of them is in his world champs jersey and one's in the European champions jersey. Very rarely they get anything wrong. And I know it'll be corrected gradually, but that did make me laugh. There's kind of a ghost European champion riding in this group of four back here as well. The race is right in the balance, isn't it? Because with Taddy Pogacar not away by himself, you look back through history, actually, he's not always been great from a group of this size. That's where sometimes he's ended up coming fourth, fifth or sixth or something in a race like this. It does, of course, depend what the UAE team members' plan is here. And Del Toro is looking around. I think Del Toro actually looking around to check where Taddy Pogacar is, if I'm not mistaken. Taddy Pogacar is starting to stretch things out on the descent. Isaac Del Toro is sitting on the back of that group, but the gap between them and the others is not massive. And the non-UAE riders in this group, Yulelio and Quinn Simmonds, Victor Laffey, they need to get on with this. Lorenzo Melezi can be probably excused from sitting in a little bit because he's been in the long breakaway all day today. It's remarkable that he's even there and now he sits at the back of the Movistar Man. Quinn Simmonds is doing the lion's share of the chasing here as well. No great surprise there, John, but if they do not get organized, even if the original plan was for Taddy Pogacar to do a soft move and Isaac Del Toro goes across with him, this race is riding away from that lot. Taddy Pogacar is extending and Quinn Simmonds is trying to ride across to him by himself now. By the American champion, Quinn Simmonds, who is trying to ride across to Taddy Pogacar. There is Simmonds in between Taddy Pogacar and the remaining five riders back there. They are Isaac Del Toro, Victor Laffey, Egan Bernal and Lorenzo Melezi, the man who survives from the race-long breakaway today so far, who is in the black shorts, John Mould. But at the moment, Taddy Pogacar is riding away to win this race. He is. He timed that attack on the descent and as soon as he opened a little gap, that was it. He is able to then open it up on the flat as well. So, 17km to go, we start the final climb, around 300m of time. Taddy Pogacar is on the Oltrona a Lago, the over-the-lake climb, riding up to, eventually, the Cinquecento observation point that looks out across the lake. Five trees, lookout point that looks across the lake. He won't notice it, though, because he'll just rip straight past and eventually then start the descent as well, Taddy Pogacar. Let's watch the gap. Well, it's probably more like 30 seconds back to now what has become a complete chase group as well. Just those tufts of hair out the helmet of Taddy Pogacar that lead with 13.6km to go and Poggi has got nearly a minute, John Mould. Yeah, committed and almost just a full time trial. I think he went with 17km to go. You know, it's an all-out effort, so there's nothing to hold back and I think that's why that gap has just extended so quickly as well. The moment, because he wears number one. He's the world champion, European champion, four-time Tour de France champion. This man, Taddy Pogacar, looks like he could solo all the way to the win, but of course, you never know what can happen in cycling. A puncture and with the gap only being 40 seconds, the team cars won't be in that gap. So it will only be neutral service who will be able to service Pogacar. 1.6km to the top of the climb. What a ride and what an attack from Pogacar. He won the world's in Rwanda. He won the Europeans in France at the weekend. He's heading towards Il Lombardia with a chance to become the first rider in history to win five in a row. This, if you like, is his stepping stone and he's smashed it once again. Taddy Pogacar wins the Tre Valle Varesini.