(Reuters) – Tadej Pogacar wrapped up overall victory in the Tirreno-Adriatico week-long race by holding off Belgian Wout van Aert in the final individual time trial on Tuesday.
The Tour de France champion took fourth place on the day, 12 seconds off the pace of stage winner Van Aert who clocked a best time of 11:06 over 10.1km around San Benedetto del Tronto.
Slovenian Pogacar built his victory by prevailing in the only mountain top finish of the race, then extending his overall lead over Van Aert in Sunday’s fifth stage.
Overall, he beat Van Aert by 1:03 and Spain’s Mikel Landa by 3:57 while 2019 Tour winner Egan Bernal took fourth place, 4:13 off the pace.
It is Pogacar’s second stage race victory this season after he won the UAE Tour last month.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
