The time trial reflects the podium. The will to challenge oneself. The absolute dominance of Tadej Pogacar, who wins his third Tour in style, at an average of 45s after climbing, as if it were the Monte Carlo rally, skidding in the curves, Turbie and col d’Èze. Second, as in the general classification, as throughout the Tour, Jonas Vingegaard. Third, the future, Remco Evenepoel. Both, a minute later in the time trial. At 6m 17s and 9m 18s, respectively, in the general classification. It is the crushing triumph of Caníbal II.
They were an exceptional start due to the pandemic and an extraordinary end due to the Games. Two events that, over time, have had a premonitory value. And no one forgets that the name Nice was born in Nikaïa, the nymph of victory that the Greeks called Nike and the Romans Latinized in Nicaea. When only the prophecies of horror are fulfilled, the allegory of Tadej Pogacar rejoices hearts. In a turn of life, a complete 360 degrees, that no one could have foreseen or written, the Slovenian cyclist, who has not yet turned 26, has climbed onto the victory podium of his third Tour in the same place where he started the first of those he won, the one in 2020, when the pandemic hit, the Place de Massena, next to the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. As if he had travelled around France and the world of cycling over the last five years like the rider with his head upside down in the Marc Chagall painting in the museum that lights up one of the hills of Nice and its stained glass windows, riding towards the future, always looking back to the beginning of everything and to the sky.
“The first Tour was a surprise for everyone, including me, I didn’t expect it. I was happy to finish second and win the last time trial, but I beat Roglic,” Pogacar recalls. “The second, in 2021, I resolved early, with a long breakaway in the Alps on a very rainy and cold day that I still remember as one of the best days on the bike, full gas “I was a bit slow all day. I got a lot of time out of everyone. It was a smooth Tour.” Although Vingegaard finished second, there was no duel. The big battles were in 2022 and 2023, which Pogacar lost. “In 2022 I had a bad day. I made so many mistakes following Primoz and Jonas on the Galibier that I finally blew up. And that was it, a bad day. Then last year there was the crash in Liège. I didn’t go out on the bike until May 25 or 26. So there was about a month to go before the Tour and I was riding with a bracelet on my wrist. And I was still wearing it the first week of the Tour while I was sleeping because I didn’t want to roll over my hand and break it again. So this was a big problem last year. I wasn’t physically ready after the crash and I wasn’t mentally ready for the Tour last year.”
On the penultimate Sunday in July, Nice is Paris. Same heat, more humidity. Same crowds and the same clochards sleeping on sweaty benches, but in less space. There is no Champs Elysées, but there is the Promenade des Anglais. And the streets are filled with exiled Africans from Asmara, proud to be Eritreans, wearing black T-shirts that say ‘Bini’, for Biniam Girmay, who learned to ride the old bikes that the Italians abandoned when they lost the wars, and the green jersey of the Tour de France, which, for the first time in its history, pays homage with an extraordinary podium pass to its red lantern, Mark Cavendish, capable of finishing the Tour at 39, still the last, after having won his 35th stage, one more than Eddy Merckx, more than anyone in history.
With the time trial victory, Pogacar has achieved his sixth stage win in the Tour of 24, the 17th in his five Tours. The numbers clearly invite us to proclaim him Cannibal II and to compare him with Cannibal I, Merckx, the Belgian in whose footsteps he follows. Like the Belgian of 1970, who won the Giro and the Tour and many stages and was so superior, between the two races, Pogacar has won 12 stages and has spent 39 of the 42 days in the leader’s jersey (20 in pink, 19 in yellow) to the chagrin of the cyclists and a certain languor of the fans, who love duels and rivalry, which in this Tour lasted two days. Merckx won his third Tour, in 1971, the one in which Ocaña fell, when he was just 26, and his champion’s spirit faded at 29, just after winning in 1974, his best season, the fifth Tour after the fifth Giro. When people talk about it, Pogacar’s people prefer not to think about it. Nor does the Slovenian, who does not look at records, but at his own desire and does not know if he will continue racing at 28, 29 or 30. “As long as I continue having fun on the bike, I will continue racing,” he promises. “I have more experience. I don’t make too many mistakes. I’m not, I don’t know, sometimes if you’re anxious in the race, it’s super bad. And this year I was never stressed. I always had control of my own mind. And I had control when I got into the lead on the Galibier, on the fourth day. So this was, for me, a great moment of motivation. I had confidence in my head. And yes, I have run without pressure this past week. We will look at the numbers later. But yes, I am sure that I am one of the best.”
“He has been very, very strong, at his highest level. The first two weeks I was also at the strongest level I have ever been, but this last week I have not been at my normal level because of my preparation problems,” says Vingegaard. Continuing with Chagall and his triptych of hope, the Dane began the Tour as an exercise in endurance, followed by, in the 11th stage, the Lioran, the resurrection and the final defeat, which in some way meant liberation, graphically illustrated by his sobs released in the arms of Trine, Frida’s mother and his wife, who comforts and helps him. The mourning perhaps died on April 4th last in a bad curve in the Basque Country where Jonas Vingegaard left his strength and his hopes. “No, I wouldn’t say it was a relief. For me it was more a relief to be here on the starting line. “My plan was to try to fight for the general classification and I wanted to do it as well as possible and, to be honest, with the preparation I have had, I think I can be more than happy with where I am now. It is good for the sport to have a guy like him or at least that we can have a rivalry like this, without one of us I think the Tour de France would not be as fun.”
“Thinking about the defeats I suffered with Vingegaard made me train harder,” Pogacar admits. “And I also changed my preparation with the new coach, Javier Sola. I didn’t start on November 13 with a long ride. I did different things. Core, physiotherapy, short rides. So I wasn’t as fit as other years in the December training camp. So this year I was a little less fit in December, January. And then I started to gather strength for the Giro, which in the end was also a very good preparation for the Tour for me. I won the Giro with a really good mentality at the finish, physically prepared. Everything went like clockwork.”
Pogacar also prefers to talk about Vingegaard and himself rather than Merckx. And, perhaps unconsciously, about the new dimension to which he has brought the Tour de France, which demands a new cyclist. “We are seeing a historic moment pass before our eyes,” says Enric Mas. “Pogacar is making history.” We can no longer talk about climbers who trial the clock or time trialists who climb. We are talking about cyclists with power and strength, and explosiveness, who destroy climbers and diesel riders. They fly at unprecedented speeds. They recover like clockwork. They transfer kilos of carbohydrates every day, and convert them into gasoline. It is the cycling of energy, which will generate new champions every year, and Remco Evenepoel, third, follows the path, compact, strong, resistant. Without fear of heights.
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