Pogacar’s triumph was his fourth win in five races this year, with three of them in Monuments – the five most prestigious, and difficult, one-day races in road cycling.

The outlier was a second-placed finish at Paris-Roubaix last month.

Despite this dominance, in Seixas he has a new rival who seems capable of challenging him.

Competing in his first Liege and only his second ever Monument race, Seixas challenged Pogacar throughout as other riders faded away.

He kept up with the four-time Tour de France winner for nearly 20km on the climb at the Cote de la Redoute, where the winning move had been made by cyclists in each of the previous four years.

“On the Redoute climb I was really going deep but on the top, he came next to me and I was like, ‘OK, really impressed’,” said Pogacar.

“Maybe back in my head, I was already preparing to do a duel sprint because he was so strong.”

It was not until the final attack on the Cote de la Roche-aux-Faucons that Pogacar left the young challenger behind, 600m from the top.

“I tried on Roche-aux-Faucons, I tried to keep my pace… It suits me super well and luckily he dropped.”

Pogacar is now one short of Belgian Eddy Merckx’s record five Liege victories.