Portugal Colonial - Pogacar chats with Merckx after Il Lombardia landmark

World champion Pogacar became the first man since Merckx in 1975 to win three of the sport's five Monument races in the same season, and also bested Italian legend Fausto Coppi in consecutive victories in the "Race of the Falling Leaves".

The 27-year-old said that after the race he spoke to Merckx thanks to his former mechanic Ernesto Colnago, the founder of the eponymous bike manufacturer which has since 2017 supplied bikes to Pogacar's team UAE Emirates.

"Ernesto Colnago was here at the finish and Eddy was calling him. We were speaking on the phone and it's really cool that he calls and we talk like this," said Pogacar, who is tiring of comparisons with the 80-year-old Belgian.

"It's been a lot of times I'm hearing this all the time, comparing with Eddie Merckx. But yeah, I don't like this kind of comparisons.

"I don't like that all the time you need to compare to somebody. Nobody likes to be compared to somebody all the time."

His win at Il Lombardia is another record to add to a growing list as Italian great Coppi strung four consecutive wins between 1946 and 1949, with his fifth coming in 1954.

Pogacar capped another stunning season in which he became the first man to win both the Tour de France and world championship two seasons in a row.

And he is now also the first to finish on the podium of all five Monuments in the same season.

In April, Pogacar won both the Tour of Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege, victories which go alongside third place in Milan-San Remo and second in Paris-Roubaix which were both won by Mathieu van der Poel.

C.Amaral--PC