The beggining of the end
Pogačar’s two Pyrenean wins decide this Tour and force us to reconsider the future of cycling… and of Jonas Vingegaard
Hey! Greetings from the Pyrenees where I’m spending a few days with some friends following these three stages through Hautacam, Peyragudes and Superbagnères.
There will be time for a more in-depth analysis of these amazing days, the atmosphere and the overall show put on by fans from all over the world, lining the kerbs while waiting for the riders.
Pogačar’s two exhibitions have nearly ended the Tour far too early and showed that, like Attila, nothing grows where he passes. We’ve never seen anything like this, but it also opens up a series of debates and reflections about his impact on modern cycling. A few brief roadside notes on these two historic victories by Pogačar.
Heading for his fourth Tour, Tadej Pogačar is a year younger than Lance Armstrong was when he won the first of his seven*. After four years of one of the greatest rivalries in Tour history, Pogačar has already decided the race in the first two climbing stages… despite this being the year the mountains have taken the longest to appear in 19 years. Just another level.
Pogačar’s overwhelming superiority reflects his own level, but also the performance of his main rival. Visma’s Tour had been flawless until now: pressure in every stage, isolating Pogačar whenever possible, creating nerves, chasing crosswinds, and embracing chaos.
Pogačar’s crash on the way to Toulouse might have been avoided if he’d had three or four teammates around him. That wasn’t the case. And although the contact with Johannessen was accidental, these are race incidents where positioning and accumulated fatigue play a part. It was on one of those days that Almeida also suffered his unfortunate crash.
Despite all that, the fall doesn't seem to have affected the Slovenian much as he’s put 2'46" into Vingegaard in just two days. Jorgenson also had a dreadful day: he was dropped on the Soulor and lost more than 10 minutes at the finish.
Is it all down to Pogačar’s brilliance? Despite the Dutch team’s strong work, the key GC stages boil down to three: the two time trials and the stage to Hautacam. And in two of them, Vingegaard was far from his best. He finished 13th in the flat time trial in Caen, and on Hautacam he was much closer to Lipowitz than to Pogačar. The Dane was over a minute slower than his ride three years ago, and only seventh fastest among the favourites over the final 4km of the climb. Is it a result of Visma’s ‘boomerang effect’ of pressure and speed, or a physiological change where he has improved on short, explosive climbs and in his sprint, but not so much in his climbing on longer mountain climbs?
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