POGACAR CLAIMS EMOTIONAL LIEGE WIN

He dedicates triumph to girlfriend’s late mother; gears up for Giro-Tour double bid

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Tadej Pogacar won the Liege-Bastogne-Liege race on April 21, thanks to a solo break, 30km from home, before dedicating victory to the mother of his girlfriend who died on the eve of the 2022 event.

Ahead of Pogacar's Giro d'Italia and Tour de France double bid, the 25-year-old Slovenian blew the opposition away with an acceleration that none could answer on the 254km route in the Ardennes forests that marks the end of the spring classics.

Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders winner Mathieu van der Poel, bidding to become the first man since the legendary Eddy Merckx in 1975 to win three of the major one-day races in the same season, was a commendable third.