By Tom Mustroph, dpa
Superstar Tadej Pogacar had been warned. "I know he's a bit crazy. He told me about his seat post at the start and told me not to follow him on the descent," said the Tour de France champion about his conversation with Matej Mohoric.
He won the 113th Milan-Sanremo spring classic with great daring and technical finesse. Pogacar followed his advice, and so neither he nor his compatriot Primoz Roglic continued their winning streak in cycling, and yet little Slovenia rejoiced again. Mohoric is the third in a golden generation, so to speak.
With lowerable stabiliser post for a coup
Mohoric was proud of his coup. "I used a dropper seat post, which is already common on mountain bikes," explained the man from Kranj. "Previously, this was not used in road cycling because the weight was too great," Mohoric continued. However, the Slovenian found a super-light one on the market. On the descent from the Poggio, he switched several times at 80 km/h from the lower, aerodynamically more favourable position to the higher normal position, which offered him more safety when steering. This gave him a two-second lead over the Frenchman Anthony Turgis.
"I've killed cycling for the second time," said Mohoric, referring to his love of experimentation. Nine years ago, he became famous with the now banned supertuck position, when he raced down the mountains aerodynamically while sitting on the top tube. According to him, this was the first time he had "killed" his sport. Now the world governing body UCI has received the next (regulatory) task from him.
Specialist for long stages
But even for Mohoric, simply riding quickly down the mountain is not enough to win a 293-kilometre-long classic. The 27-year-old has considerable stamina. He attracted attention last year with two stage wins in the Tour de France, one of them over almost 250 kilometres through the vineyard-rich Bourgogne.
The victory in Sanremo was a first. It was the fifth victory for Slovenia in the sixth WorldTour race of the season. That caused quite a stir. Slovenia has only two million inhabitants, seven of whom are professionals in the WorldTour. By comparison, Germany has 34 WorldTour riders. However, none of them are of the calibre of Pogacar or Roglic. Both are exceptional talents.
Slovenia - a power in the cycling world
Slovenia's good training infrastructure and the country's varied topography worked in their favour, as Mohoric explained. Of course, there is also a doping shadow hanging over the Slovenian cycling miracle. Cyclists and managers have been linked to the Thuringian doping doctor Mark S., who was exposed during Operation Aderlass. Milan Erzen, Slovenian former cyclist and founder of the Bahrain Victorious racing team, was already under special observation by the UCI due to suspected doping. However, there was no conclusive evidence against him or any of the Slovenian top riders.
During a raid on the Bahrain Victorious team hotel at the previous Tour de France, traces of the muscle drug Tizanidin were found. However, the substance was not yet on the doping ban list at the time and is currently being investigated by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for its possible performance-enhancing effects.
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