Taddei Pogachar admitted that he is well on his way to the main summer challenges of the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France after a very successful week in the Volta a Catalunya, winning four of the seven races and making his biggest margin in 64 years.

Pogachar had the most dominant performance of the week's stage races, winning three summit finishes and the final group sprint in the Parc Montjuïc on Sunday.

He became the first rider since Mario Cipollini in 1998 to win four Volta stages.

His overall margin of victory was 3:41, with an additional 10-second bonus for finishing first in the final dash in Barcelona. This was the first time since 1960 that Catalan all-rounder Miguel Poblet won the race with a 3:51 advantage over his Ferries teammates Jose Perez Francis and Emilio Cruz.

On the final podium, Mikel Landa had his best start to a season ever. But Pogachar was on top again.

"This past week meant a lot to me. Last year's half-season was tough," Pogachar said. I'm very proud of myself," Pogachar said.

"This victory gives me a lot of confidence. I'm going really well for the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France."

Pogachar said he is looking forward to the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia.

Pogachar often won from solo breakaways, as he did in the first three stages, for his first GC victory since Paris-Nice last year and his first group since dominating Sergio Igita and Alejandro in the Italian fall classic, Tre Valle Varesine, in October 2022. sprint victory.

However, as he explained, the last option for victory was just one of several cards the UAE had, as it would seal the mountain victory and the points ranking.

"Today was different, we tried to use Marc Soler, but in my opinion he was too fast. He decided to attack on the first lap and he actually did a good job.

"Then at the end I had a bit of a battle with Joan Almeida and he did super well on the last little upsurge and almost finished. So I saved my legs for the sprint race.

On a day that featured a very technical final circuit, with six ferociously steep climbs to Montjuïc Castle, Pogachar said that both good legs and reading the race correctly contributed to his final victory.

"After six days of hard racing, today was not easy at all. As a team we raced very well. We always had one person in front and someone covering the race. On a track like this, where it's so hard to control, that's very important."

Pogachar explained that he was already confident that he was in good shape after his 81km Grand Solo in Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo. However, Catalunya reinforced that confidence.

"The course is different here and there is a lot of climbing. Not only me, but the whole team proved that we are on a good path."

As for whether he is in the best shape ever, Pogachar said, "I'm more comfortable on the bike than ever. My training and everything is going well."

"I'm really happy and this is about more than numbers," he said.

Next, recovering from a very hard week of racing and preparing for the Giro, "I'm going to train a little differently than I have in the past. So we'll see what the future brings."

In any case, the present couldn't be better.