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, with irish cyclist Ryan Mullen finishing in the top-half of the field today.
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.
"It's a fantastic start to the season," said Pogacar who followed on from his success in the UAE Tour.
"But now I already need a little bit (of) rest before continuing the season.
"I felt good today, a little bit fatigued after all the racing. It was a fast race, I was prepared well and I’m super happy to take this win."
The Slovenian 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.
Irish time-trial specialist Ryan Mullen put in a very creditable performance on the day. The Trek-Segafredo rider was 61st out of the 159 cyclists that took to the road today, 57 seconds down on Van Aert’s blistering time.
