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  "path": "/tadej-pogacar-takes-one-beautiful-step-closer-to-completing-cycling",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-22T16:04:31.000Z",
  "site": "https://defector.com",
  "tags": [
    "Cycling",
    "italian excellence but not so much in the sense of excellence on the behalf of italians but rather excellence on the italian peninsula",
    "milan-san remo",
    "monuments",
    "tadej pogacar",
    "a heavy crash",
    "springboard from which"
  ],
  "textContent": "Here is a loose rule that you can use to determine whether or not Tadej Pogacar is going to win a bike race: if you can see the flank of an asscheek protruding through his tattered skinsuit, nobody is beating him.\n\nOne year after winning Strade Bianche with his butt flapping in the wind following a heavy crash on a descent, Pogacar again fell hard just before the business end of Milan-San Remo on Saturday. The Slovenian world-conqueror was deep into his second attempt at winning _La Classicissima_ when he went down at what felt like the worst possible time, mere kilometers away from the foot of the Cipressa. The race's penultimate climb was the springboard from which he and Mathieu van der Poel launched their winning move last year, and it was once again the lynchpin of his team's strategy. With his left flank spangled with gore, could Pogacar recover in time to make a move? Would he even have the juice to make such a move stick?\n\nAbsolutely, yes. Pogacar won in a photo-finish sprint against Tom Pidcock on the Via Roma, after six-and-a-half hours of racing. He has now won four of the five Monument classics, not to mention almost every single other moderately significant race in the sport. Tadej Pogacar has nearly completed cycling at age 27, though unlike so many of his previous classics wins, this was no procession. Pogacar had to scrap for his place in history.",
  "title": "Tadej Pogacar Takes One Beautiful Step Closer To Completing Cycling"
}