The reigning Tour de France champion showed his class and ice-cold nerves in the sprint finish after a hard race to just beat Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) in the sprint finish to win the first monument of his career. I m without words, said Pogačar. I really love this race and to win here like this against these names is unbelievable. The last sprint, I knew Alaphilippe was going longer, I stayed and I was lucky that it was a good wind for me. I was coming from behind and coming with speed. it s unbelievable. I m living the cycling dream.
Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates were uncertain starters for the race after being pulled from Fleche Wallonne after two members of the team returned positive COVID tests, which the team said were false positives. They were allowed to compete in Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Tour de France champion made the most of his opportunity to take the victory.