Tadej Pogačar: Tourmalet tour de force
Tadej does what he does -- destroys the hopes of every rival in the race.
There was no surprise party on the Tourmalet.
Four-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) dominated the climb up and the descent down the iconic Tourmalet.
Attacking five kilometers from the summit, after a lead-out by Isaac del Toro, Pogačar shot forward and left everyone except Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease-a-Bike) in his wake. By the top, he had thirty seconds on the only possible rival in this race.
Then on the backside he took another thirty seconds with an audacious descent that was terrifying to watch. A skillful descender himself, Vingegaard still lost major time.
And the time gaps just kept ballooning out. Inevitable, relentless, brutal. Tack on another minute, why don’t ya!
An elite chase group containing Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) and Lenny (Martinez Bahrain Victorious) did damage control. There was plenty of damage that needed attention. Their deficit was almost 3 minutes and growing.
“We were going like crazy and if we explode, we explode,” said Pogačar. “In my mind, I left everything to coincidence. I wasn’t calculating minutes and seconds.” Well, needless to say, he banked a lot of time advantage.
The yellow jersey of Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility) had almost eight minutes on Pogačar at today’s start. However, once on the Tourmalet, the Slovenian easily wiped out that deficit. Then disaster for Træen as he clipped the rear wheel of his teammate Anders Halland Johannessen on the descent and crashed hard. After a long, tense examination by the race doctor, he managed to remount.
It was an 18 kilometer mountain climb that has probably decided this Tour de France, barring an unforeseen disaster. The greatest pro cyclist in the history of the sport simply does what he wants.
The final scoreboard: Pogačar leads Vingegaard by 2:42 and his teammate Del Toro by 3:27 with Remco Evenepoel another 3 seconds behind. 19 year old Paul Seixas, the future of French cycling, took 5th place today which puts him 6th overall, at 3:55. Pas mal, mon pôte!
Another mountain, another win. “Really incredible victory. Sweet for sure,” said Pogačar. “Very big hype already talking about this stage. This morning my mind was going crazy. I was really excited for today.”
Vingegaard, on the other hand was clearly not thrilled by the outcome. Post-stage, he was open and honest about what happened. “It was a very tough day. Not the day I wanted. He put a big attack on Tourmalet and I couldn’t follow,” said the Dane. “That’s how it is. I’m disappointed. Sometimes that’s life. I still believe in myself — my legs will get better.”
Let’s hope so, otherwise the GC battle will largely be about the scramble for the last step on the podium in Paris.
This is the drawback of dominance for those watching the Tour de France. We can be astonished by the talents of Pogačar and still feel a bit bored by the predictability.