{"id":176949,"date":"2025-10-03T07:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T07:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/176949\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T07:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T07:26:08","slug":"pogacar-would-have-loved-to-keep-going-with-the-uae-train-but-saw-ayuso-drop-back-and-del-toro-struggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/176949\/","title":{"rendered":"Pogacar would have loved to keep going with the UAE train, but saw Ayuso drop back and Del Toro struggle"},"content":{"rendered":"

The big bosses at UAE Emirates-XRG will have watched the World Cycling Championships in Rwanda<\/a> on Sunday with broad smiles on their faces. On Mount Kigali, top rider Tadej Pogacar<\/a> attacked, and only two riders were able to keep up with him at the top: Juan Ayuso<\/a> and Isaac Del Toro<\/a>. The three UAE riders rode together for a short while, but Pogacar saw to his own disappointment that it would not last long.A year ago at the World Championships in Zurich, Pogacar attacked with 100 kilometers to go, and this time he added a few more kilometers<\/a>. On the steep climb of Mount Kigali, he realized it was the ideal place to thin out the peloton. \u201cThe course was made for an attack from afar, but I had hoped that a small group would form.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, one after another, the riders dropped out of Pogacar’s wheel. Ayuso held on well until the top, and Del Toro sprinted impressively to the wheel of his two UAE teammates. \u201cThat was perfect and a dream scenario,\u201d Pogacar enthused in the flash interview afterwards. After Mount Kigali, however, he could not have imagined that 20 kilometers later, he would still be alone.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the video<\/p>\n

Pogacar sees Ayuso and Del Toro drop back very early\u201cJuan quickly ran into trouble on the cobbles,\u201d Pogacar said, referring to the Spaniard’s collapse<\/a> on the incredibly steep Wall of Kigali. Del Toro boldly took the lead there and seemed capable of matching Pogacar. That turned out not to be the case, because although the Mexican initially put in some strong efforts, he suddenly ran out of steam 66 kilometers from the finish line.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsaac told me he had stomach problems during the race,\u201d Pogacar explained the sudden collapse of his young teammate. Given this information, it is a minor miracle that Del Toro still managed to finish seventh. \u201cSo I had to go it alone quite early on and, just like last year, I fought a battle with myself. I’m delighted that I made it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the video<\/p>\n

Pogacar certainly suffered during epic World Championship solo<\/p>\n

Did he suffer during those local laps in Kigali? \u201cThe climbs got harder with every lap, and you also had to pedal quite a lot on the descents. I eventually ran out of energy, which made the last laps really tough. Of course, you have doubts at moments like that, but you have to keep going and hope for the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, his lead over second-placed Remco Evenepoel was more than enough at one and a half minutes. Third-placed Ben Healy finished more than two minutes behind, and after fourth-placed Mattias Skjelmose, it was more than six minutes before the rest of the top ten arrived. Tom Pidcock finished tenth, 9.05 minutes behind! \u201cIt was a great experience, all in all. Let’s just say it was a successful week,\u201d smiled Pogi at the end.<\/p>\n

Pogacar certainly suffered during epic World Championship soloIn a short interview with Eurosport<\/a>, Pogacar showed his emotional side. When he threw himself into the Slovenian celebrations, it was an emotional experience. \u201cIt’s special, for sure. There was pressure on the team’s shoulders as defending champions, and we came with big ambitions. We did it, and I’m very proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, I saw my teammates, who sacrificed so much for me. I had to thank them all, it was pure emotion at the finish,\u201d Pogacar laughed, with a new rainbow jersey already around his shoulders. \u201cAnd when you’re exhausted, it’s even more emotional to see all those people there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The big bosses at UAE Emirates-XRG will have watched the World Cycling Championships in Rwanda on Sunday with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-176949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}