Cycling star Pogačar wins Liège–Bastogne–Liège again with another uphill attack

Cycling star Tadej Poga ar launched one of his trademark uphill attacks to win the Li ge Bastogne Li ge classic race for the third time on Sunday The defending champion made his move specific kilometers miles from the end of the undulating -kilometer -mile trek to open up a gap of seconds at the top and then kept increasing it all the way to the line It was his third success overall at the spring classic race which is also one of the five monuments in one-day cycling along with Paris-Roubaix on the cobbles the Tour of Lombardy Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders Poga ar now has nine monument victories He was so far ahead Sunday that he even had time to turn and smile at the roadside camera filming him then touched hands with fans near the finish before raising his arms in the air with triumph assured He won in just over six hours and finished minute seconds ahead of Italian Giulio Ciccone in second and Irishman Ben Healy in third They contested a sprint to the line In decent racing conditions Poga ar s UAE Organization Emirates teammates increased the speed at the front of the main pack and the peloton caught a small group of front-runners with kilometers to go and with the main favorites still in contention But when Poga ar surged ahead on the C te de La Redoute climb no rider could follow him It was a similar story on Wednesday when Poga ar launched a trademark uphill attack to win the Fl che Wallonne classic for the second time The -year-old Slovenian will aim to win the showcase Tour de France for the fourth time later this year It was a disappointing race for two-time champion Remco Evenepoel as the Belgian rider was dropped by Poga ar up the Redoute climb The two-time Olympic champion could not gain any time back and instead dropped down to finish in th place behind Poga ar The -kilometer -mile women s race was set to finish later Sunday AP sports https apnews com sports Source