After being caught after his solo effort and missing out on victory at the Amstel Gold Race, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) admitted that he was perhaps "too enthusiastic" making such an early attack with just under 50km to ride at the Dutch one-day race.
Pogačar moved away from the group of favourites with Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) over the Gulperberg, but ended up alone with 42km still to ride on the next climb up the Kruisberg, as the Frenchman blew up behind his seated acceleration.
Still, the world champion looked as though he was going to ride away solo as he did at this very race two years ago, albeit closer to the line, and how he did at the Tour of Flanders two weeks ago.
However, perhaps showing the signs of fatigue after a brutal Paris-Roubaix debut and an intense block of Classics racing, he was slowly reeled back in by a chasing duo of Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and eventual race-winner Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek).
With 8km remaining, Pogačar's air of invincibility in the hilly Classics had disappeared, and he was left to fight out a three-up sprint, with the Dane shocking both the world and Olympic champion by narrowly pipping Pogačar to the line in a photo finish.
"It was a really nice race, a good race from us, but in the end, the line was five metres too long and yeah, second place," said a disappointed Pogačar to Sporza at the finish.
"When me and Alaphilippe went, I was hoping that he would stay longer with me together and that we could go long, but maybe we were too enthusiastic with the first attack.
"Since then, I tried to commit alone, but once Remco joined Skjelmose, they were two and in the last 50km, with strong headwind, I couldn't make the gap bigger."
It was a rare sign of vulnerability from Pogačar, who was the heavy pre-race favourite to scorch away from the opposition over his favoured terrain, after impressing throughout the cobbled Classics earlier this month.
When he knew the solo effort wasn't going to stick, he joined the chasers and stayed cagey in the final eight kilometres, not attacking on the final Cauberg and instead risking it all in the sprint.
"I sort of decided to wait for them and try to beat them in the sprint, but it was a little bit of a gamble and second place in the end," admitted Pogačar.
"I knew that on the climbs they would come closer, so I tried to accelerate always on the top and the bottom, but like I thought before, once it was 15km to go, it was a little bit downhill and super strong downhill.
"This is where I paid the most for all the efforts before, and they could roll through a bit with two probably and just gain some time there."
Evenepoel did the majority of the work in pulling back the initial 30-second lead Pogačar had built, with Skjelmose maintaining the deficit first after countering Evenepoel over the top of the Keutenberg, only to be joined by him 25km from the line.
Pogačar had said pre-race that he wasn't surprised to see the Olympic champion in such flying form when he won his return race at Brabantse Pijl on Friday, even after he'd been out of competition for 188 days.
Today's race reinforced that, with two more duels to come in the Ardennes at La Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday and next Sunday's Liège-Bastogne-Liège, however, after both lost out to the Dane in the sprint, he too will now be a huge contender for the iconic Mur de Huy test and the fourth Monument of the year.
"I was expecting [Evenepoel] to be so strong, and he showed everybody again that he is in top shape," said Pogačar, "but in the end, Skjelmose was the strongest today in the final sprint."
It may be the third one-day race he's lost this season, but the other two were at the hands of Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in perhaps his career-best form. This win from Skjelmose was, of course, unexpected, but it's certain now that Pogačar will keep a close eye on the Dane, alongside Evenepoel, as he tries to bounce back with victories on Wednesday and Sunday.
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