Nobody has seen Katarina Johnson-
Thompson compete since she limped
off, face contorted in pain, during the
heptathlon at the Tokyo Olympics.
The 29-year-old suffered a calf injury
that cut short her attempt at Olympic
gold in August. Today, however, she is
back, defending her world title in the
pentathlon at the World Indoor Athlet-
ics Championships in Belgrade.
Johnson-Thompson, the indoorespecially when we are still learning
exactly how far Pogacar’s abilities can
stretch. And that is what makes the
113th edition of Milan-San Remo
tomorrow such a fascinating prospect.
Of cycling’s classics, the 293km
route winding from Milan to the
Mediterranean coast gives a chance
to the widest range, from sprinters to
one-day specialists to stage-racers —
“easiest to finish, hardest to win” goes
the well-worn summary — which
means that even Pogacar will have to
play his hand perfectly. Perhaps
unexpectedly, if that is possible from
the man everyone will be watching.
The sprinters are already assuming
that they will be left behind whenever
the attacks start, but does Pogacar
know when that will be yet? The
Cipressa climb is 27km from the finish
but not so long or steep (5.6km at
about 4 per cent) that it seemsIt will be no
surprise if
Pogacar, who
won the Strade
Bianche this
month, does the
same in the
Milan-San Remo,
the first big
professional road
race that Merckx
won in 1966E
lbows out, hunched over his
bike in an evocative shot
from the archives, Eddy
Merckx throws himself over
the line in a photo-finish on
the Via Roma in San Remo. It is
March 1966 and the 20-year-old
Belgian has just won the first big
professional road race of his career.
If there is surprise on his face, on
the faces of vanquished rivals, and
among fans and journalists who
scrabble around trying to discover
more about the winner of his first
race in Italy, the world would soon
know everything about the man who
would rewrite pretty much every
record in cycling and set countless
new ones. The history books
declare there has been no
one like Merckx, and
never will be. And yet.
There will be no
shock if Tadej Pogacar
wins Milan-San Remo
for the first time
tomorrow, but it would
be a breakthrough of a
different kind — not least
because the “new Merckx”
label would become so
commonplace that it might prove
irresistible.
Modern cycling has entered a new
calibration; indeed, there is almost a
new language dictated by a young
Slovenian who has a claim to be as
admired/feared by rivals in his sport
as perhaps any athlete on earth.
It is a language of celebration of
phenomenal abilities but also, in
places, of resignation. You will not
find a rider in the professional
peloton, except perhaps Primoz
Roglic on a bullish day, who does not
assume that Pogacar will win his third
Tour de France in a row this summer,
which is unheard of at 23.
Of course this is a dangerous sport
in which the first challenge, in the
frenzy of a hurtling peloton or the
extremes of the mountains, is staying
fit and upright, but Pogacar seemingly
does that better than anyone else too.
It is not only that, extraordinarily,
he has won ten of the 16 stage races
he has started as a professional, but
he has not had a “Did Not Finish”
among them — so no big crash or
succumbing to illness. Put that down
to physical resilience and, quite
possibly, being less prone to error byso rarely being on the
limit — making his own
luck, in effect.
And he keeps improving.
Pogacar enters a race, and
not only wins it but does so with
the sort of comfort that, particularly
in cycling, can easily tip into suspicion
but brings only respect, even awe,
these days from those left trailing.
When Pogacar rode away from a
high-class field on a freezing stage six
at Tirreno-Adriatico last Saturday, he
did not need to gain more time. He
later explained that he had “attacked
to warm up” as if impatient that a
dawdling field was making him cold.
Richie Porte was among the riders
to watch Pogacar head into the
distance and summed up the mood of
much of the peloton. “I think [in] the
next five years, there’s not going to be
many races won by anyone but him,”
the Ineos Grenadiers rider told
VeloNews. “He is a level above, he just
rode off. No one was even able to
react. It was just ridiculously hard and
he just clipped off, and that was the
last we saw of him.”
Some already complain Pogacar is
making a dynamic, complex sport too
predictable. They argue that the Tour
is diminished if it becomes a
procession as soon as it tilts uphill.
It seems far too soon to be bored by
greatness — if ever we should be —Matt Dickinson
Senior Sports
WriterSport
Cyclist as feared as any athlete on earth
OFFSIDE/LEQUIPE; MASSIMO PAOLONE/APpossible to build sufficient advantage.
The Poggio (4km at less than 4 per
cent) just before the race heads
towards a flat finish in San Remo is
usually where the field thins to a
small group fighting for the win —
Pog leading over the Poggio writes its
own headlines — but will that be
leaving it too late given that he will be
man-marked by, among others, the
brilliantly versatile Wout van Aert
(Jumbo-Visma) who will fancy his
chances mano a mano in a sprint?
Sadly, Julian Alaphilippe is absent
with illness but last year’s winner
Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) and
Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) will
also be among those hoping to ensure
that this is one course on which
Pogacar cannot ride off the front.
It is asking a lot even of Pogacar to
pull off victories on three consecutive
Saturdays in Italy even if we knowthat he can thrive in classics — he
won both Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Il
Lombardia in 2021 — and is in the
electrifying form that propelled a
50km solo breakaway at Strade
Bianche this month.
Sir Bradley Wiggins was following
on a motorbike for Eurosport/GCN
and was reduced to expletives and an
inevitable comparison. “He makes me
think of Merckx in the late 1960s
when he was so good,” Wiggins said.
“I’ve never really seen a rider like
him. It’s f***ing amazing to be on the
motorbike and see him perform like
that so close up. I feel so privileged.”
We know the counter-argument. It
is there in Merckx’s five Tours, five
Giro d’Italia wins, a Vuelta a España,
three road world championships, 19
Monuments and so many triumphs
they need their own Wikipedia page.
Merkcx went on to win Milan-San
Remo seven times in 11 years. Pogacar
and his UAE Team Emirates helpers
could do everything right tomorrow
yet fall short, and he certainly does
not have the element of surprise that
Merckx enjoyed in 1966.
But in this old-fashioned race, in
which seven hours in the saddle
might be condensed into a flash of
very late drama unless Pogacar has
other ideas, exploring the limits of
exceptional talent does not seem
predictable at all.Milan-
San Remo
Tomorrow, 9.10am
TV: Eurosport 2, from
8.40am. Highlights,
8pm.Johnson-Thompson back from Tokyo agony to defend title
pentathlon and outdoor heptathlon
world champion, will begin with the
60m hurdles at about 8am UK time and
finish with the 800m at about 7pm.
The Briton was not planning to com-
pete during the indoor season but was a
last-minute addition to the British team
this month after receiving an invitation
from World Athletics. Since Tokyo, she
has moved her training base to the US
from France and changed coaches.
Although her usual rival, Nafi Thiam
of Belgium, the Olympic champion, is
not competing indoors this season,Johnson-Thompson will face tough
competition from another Belgian,
Noor Vidts, who finished fourth at the
Olympics, and the present world
leader, Adrianna Sulek of Poland. How-
ever, Johnson-Thompson’s personal
best score of 5,000 places her second in
the all-time high scores of the event,
outstripping Vidts’ and Sulek’s highest
tallies of 4,791 and 4,756, respectively.
Her fellow Briton Keely Hodgkinson,
who won the silver medal in the 800m
in Tokyo, said it was great to have
Johnson-Thompson in Belgrade. “She’sa very inspiring woman to have on the
team,” the 20-year-old said. “Hopefully
she’s in a better place as well because I
know she struggled in Tokyo. I think
just being around people that have had
that experience is also motivating.”
Hodgkinson will hope to be the first
British woman to win the indoor 800m
world title when she competes on Sun-
day. She broke the British record in the
event in Birmingham last month and
said that becoming world champion
was on her list of ambitions for this year.
TV BBC2, 8.15am and 4.30pmAthletics
Rebecca Myers BelgradeBritons to watch today
Katarina Johnson-Thompson
Starts at 8am UK time with 60m
hurdles, finishing with 800m at 7pm
Daryll Neita
Will aim for gold in the women’s
60m, with heats at 9.15am and the
final at 7.55pm
Elliot Giles
A top contender in a wide-open field
for the men’s 800m at midday60 Friday March 18 2022 | the times