STA, 9 February 2020 - Slovenian Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) has won this year's Tour of Valencia, having won stages two and four of the race earlier this week. This is another major success for the 21-year-old cyclist after he placed third at his first Grand Tour, La Vuelta last September, when he claimed the white jersey as the best young cyclist.
Today's 98-km stage from Paterna to Valencia was won by Dutch Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck - Quick Step), but Pogačar managed to keep the overall lead for his third one-week race victory of his career. A year ago he won the Tour of Algarve in Portugal and last May the Tour of California in the US.
Pogačar secured the overall victory by winning yesterday's queen stage with the finish on the mountainous Sierra de Bernia, after paving the way to the success with Thursday's win of stage two, when he defeated Spanish Alejandro Valverde, one of the most successful road racing cyclists at the moment.
"After all the effort put in during the winter to get ready for the new season, this victory means tremendously to me. This is really something exceptional." Pogačar believes to be well prepared, yet not as much as at La Vuelta last year, when he placed behind fellow Slovenian winner Primož Roglič and second-placed Valverde.
* Overall standings 1. Tadej Pogačar (SLO/UAE Team Emirates) 18:43:00 2. Jack Haig (AUS/Mitchelton-Scott) + 0:06 3. Tao Geoghegan Hart (GB/Ineos) the same time 4. Dan Martin (IRL/Israel Start-up) 0:13 5. Dylan Teuns (BEL/Bahrain - McLaren) 0:23 6. Wout Poels (NED/Bahrain - McLaren) 0:25 7. Ion Izagirre (ESP/Astana) 0:32 8. Ruben Fernandez (ESPFundacion - Orbea) 0:49 9. Oscar Rodriguez (ESP/Astana) 1:11 10. Alejandro Valverde (ESP/Movistar) 1:14 ... 14. Jan Polanc (SLO/UAE Team Emirates) 1:36 24. Matej Mohorič (SLO/Bahrain - McLaren) 3:23 77. Luka Mezgec (SLO/Mitchelton-Scott) 17:42
