Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) won the 111th Tour de France which ended this evening at sunset on the Promenade des Anglais of Nice. It was an edition of the Big Loop which will surely remain in the annals for the concomitance of three extraordinary events, two of which are unprecedented and one awaited for 26 years: the start from Italy, the finish far from Paris and the Giro-Tour double achieved by the champion from Komenda, the first after that of Marco Pantani in the now distant 1998.
When, shortly before Christmas, Tadej announced that he would try to superimpose yellow on pink, few took it seriously. Some said that, sure of losing to Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease a Bike) at the Tour, the Slovenian wanted to secure the Giro to end a three-year drought in major stage races. They speculated that, having won the pink race, Pogacar would not even show up at the start in Florence because of the fierce competition that would have made it impossible to attempt the double. Those who read me know well that I have always considered the feat feasible, if not even probable, specifying that the Slovenian, in addition to being in the best shape of his life, would also need a pinch of good luck. From this last point of view, what happened on April 4 at the Tour of the Basque Country cannot be underestimated. To be precise, I have some doubts that the collective tumble that, in one fell swoop, sent Tadej’s three main opponents to the ground damaged the slim chances of conquering the yellow jersey of Remco Evenepoel (Soudal QuickStep) and Primoz Roglic (Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe). On the contrary, I am sure that the best Vingegaard could have validly challenged the son of the Tricorno.
Today’s final act, a time trial of continuous ups and downs that, in just under 34 kilometers, took the riders from Monte Carlo to Nice, recorded, for the umpteenth time, a result of the day that mirrored the general classification. Pogacar, despite getting up to celebrate 500 meters from the finish line, put his sixth seal in this Grande Boucle with a time of 45’24” at an average speed of 44.521 km/h. Jonas Vingegaard took second place at 1’02” with Remco Evenepoel third at 1’13”. The final classification sees the Slovenian win his third Tour de France with 6’17 on the outgoing Danish champion and 9’18” on the Belgian millennial making his debut in the French race. In the moment of exaltation that a performance like Pogacar’s inevitably generates, we must be honest enough to admit that this Tour did not live up to the high expectations of the experts. It was written after the Giro d’Italia that the Slovenian’s absolute domination in the pink race was due to the lack of opponents. In reality, the much vaunted Tour of wonders was nothing more than the second half of the film that began in May on the roads of the Bel Paese.
Once the pairing has been digested, the Vuelta torment will begin tomorrow. The Spanish race, which will start in Lisbon on Saturday 17 August, would offer Tadej, in the event of participation and subsequent victory, the possibility of expanding the boundaries of two wheels beyond the limits of what is conceivable. I fervently hope that he accepts the challenge even if I understand the reasons of those who have expressed themselves against his presence in the Iberian peninsula. Few sports leverage the exaltation of creativity like cycling. It follows that the idea of Tadej on the podium in Madrid on Sunday 8 September in the maglia roja, after the pink of Rome and the yellow of Nice, would give the world of cycling an instant myth destined to last forever.
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