• Winning return to action for Slovenian
• Flying American comfortably takes title •
Tadej Pogačar made a positive return to racing with victory at the Slovenian time-trial championships from Zgornje Gorje to Pokljuka (15.7km).
The 24 year old who is gearing up for the Tour de France put in a strong ride to clock a time of 29:43 with an average speed of 31.6kmph on the mountainous parcours, beating his previous course record from 2020 by a minute and a half.
Pogačar: “It’s a nice confirmation that the condition is pretty good. We’ve been working really well over the past months with the team to build up to these important next few weeks so I’m glad it’s going in the right direction.The road race on Sunday will be another nice outing in the build up up to the Tour.”
Pogačar will also take part in the road race on Sunday.
Results
1.Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) 29:43
2.Marko Pavlic (mebloJOGI pro concrete) +5’14”
3.Anze Skok (Ljubjana Gusto) +6’30”
Brandon McNulty put on a big display at the US national time trial championships in Oak Ridge with the Phoenix native putting in a strong ride to win by 1’32” on the 34.9km course.
McNulty clocked a time of 40:39 with an average pace ok 50kmph, earning the 24 year old his opportunity to pull on the stars on stripes.
McNulty: “I’m super happy to take the win here. Since I knew that I was doing the Giro it has been on my mind to come back and put in a good ride at nationals and target it. I was really happy that I came out of the Giro with good legs and could take the title.”
Elsewhere there were medals for the Emirati squad with both Mikkel Bjerg (Denmark) and Sjoerd Bax (Netherlands) picking up bronze medals to add to the gold medal won by Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia).
Results
1. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) 40:39
2. Will Barta (Movistar) +1’32”
3. Joey Rosskopf (Human Powered Health) +2