Having crashed on the run-in to the Cipressa in the weekend’s Milan-San Remo, Tadej Pogačar, admitted he thought his race was over. As we all know now, he made a typically stunning comeback to take his first win in the race on the Via Roma, but had he known the full story, he may well not have even bothered.
It turns out that the Slovenian’s victorious ride, which saw him outsprint Tom Pidcock (Pinarello–Q36.5) on the line in San Remo, was done on a cracked frame with, incredibly, a rubbing rear brake, the damage incurred in the earlier crash. All this only transpired after the race, upon inspection of the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider’s Colnago V5Rs.
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“He reset it himself and didn’t notice anything else wrong, so we didn’t change the bike,” the mechanic said.
Having been used to best Pidcock by half a wheel, Pogačar’s Colnago has become a luxurious and storied museum piece. No longer useable, “it will go into his special collection,” Kavčnik said.
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